Meet Luca.
Luca Levi. He’s in the second grade.
Luca arranges things. What does that mean, you ask? It means he helps people to get what they want.
Luca likes helping people. It comes naturally to him.
He arranges lots of things. Some are easy.
Like once, Luca helped a fourth grade teacher, Mr. Haney, meet a bunch of people who love Star Wars just as much as he does. That was no problem because Luca’s older sister’s boyfriend’s uncle was the vice president of the Gulch Valley Star Wars Appreciation Club.
Some things aren’t as easy, though. Emma Ledger once came to Luca with a big problem.
She skipped up beside him at recess one day in September and nearly screamed, “You have to help me, Luca!”
Luca had been in the shade sipping apple juice from a box when this happened, and in his surprise he squeezed most of it onto his shoes. Looking down at his sticky Adidas sneakers, he spluttered, “Ummm, okay. With what?”
“It’s my sister,” Emma cried. “She’s my best friend, but she recently moved away to college. I miss her so much…” Her eyes began to fill with tears at this. “Can you find me…ANOTHER BEST FRIEND?”
She started sobbing quite loudly and used one long brown pigtail to wipe her eyes. Other kids on the playground were beginning to look up at her and Luca.
“I,” Luca began, “I, uh… What? You want me to find…your sister?”
“No!” Emma threw her head back and screamed at the sky in despair. “You have to help me find A NEW BEST FRIEND!”
Luca helped people all the time, so getting a request from someone he barely knew was normal. But finding a new best friend? How was he supposed to do that?
“How am I supposed to do that?” he asked. Emma’s wailing was getting embarrassing.
“I don’t know!” she sobbed. “You help everyone else! Besides, there must be someone in school I haven’t gotten to know yet. Someone who is smart, probably. And good at puzzles, I think.” She looked up at him quickly, then back down at her hands.
Puzzles. Luca did like puzzles. But seriously? A new best friend? This was big. Not like when he’d helped Coach Hershey find tickets to that baseball game.
But he had introduced Addie Bilbao to Evan Dixon based on their shared interest in My Little Pony. Could he do something like that again?
Luca’s eyebrows lowered as he thought about how he could help. Meanwhile, Emma’s sobs had caught the attention of Mrs. Heckmeyer, the playground aide whose hair looked like a beehive.
Seeing her approach from a distance, Luca called, “Emma’s okay, Mrs. Heckmeyer!” Emma looked over and nodded to the aide, adding a small thumbs-up to show her agreement.
“You just let me know if you need anything, sweet pea,” Mrs. Heckmeyer called after them before trudging back to the swings.
Rolling his eyes, Luca turned back to Emma and said, “Yes, okay. Fine, I can do it. We’ll find you a new best friend.”
“Wonderful!” Emma smiled, her sobs cut off like a water faucet. Now twirling her pigtail with one index finger and grinning at Luca, she added, “When can you start?”