Luca and Rin walked together to Nurse Barker’s office, while Emma watched from the blacktop, a short distance away. She had watched the whole thing happen and had been standing there alone, jump rope in both hands, unmoving.
A minute later, Luca walked back to the playground and saw Emma. She saw him but looked away quickly. Luca walked to her.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi,” she said. “Is, um… Is she okay?”
“I think so,” said Luca. “She wasn’t bleeding. She’s just sad.”
At this, Luca noticed a tear in Emma’s eye. “What’s wrong?” he said.
Emma squeezed her lips together so she wouldn’t speak. She didn’t seem to want to tell Luca what was wrong. He kept looking at her, concerned.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Fine,” she said, wiping away two tears just as two more arrived. “Fine, be her best friend and I’ll find one myself.”
Luca was confused. “What do you mean? She’s not my best friend.”
“But you get along so well already, and she just got here!”
“Yeah, s…so?,” Luca stammered.
“I kind of thought…” Emma started. “Well, I didn’t mean it at the beginning, but… You were so nice to help, and… I thought we were going to be best friends.”
Luca was startled. He hadn’t thought of it like that. He didn’t know Emma very well at first, but she was definitely nice. And she was smart. She liked to read, and…
“But then the new girl showed up, and you became her best friend!” Emma was shouting a little, and she blushed. But it seemed no one had noticed.
“No I didn’t!” Luca was fairly certain he was not best friends with Rin. He was just trying to help her. And besides, it seemed to him that Rin and Emma would make good friends.
“Emma,” he said, “I was always trying to help you. And I wanted to get to know Rin because I hoped you would want to be best friends with her, and then everyone would be happy. But you’ve looked sad all day.”
“Oh,” Emma said, looking down. “I guess I didn’t notice.”
Just then, Rin came walking back to the playground, a cool pack held to her face with one hand. “Hi Luca,” she said. “Thanks for helping me.”
“You’re welcome,” said Luca. “I love helping people. In fact, I was just telling Emma that you two might both like Hello Kitty. Maybe Emma’s the one to answer your questions about school.” He smiled first at Rin, then at Emma.
“Well,” said Emma, perking up a bit through a last sniffle, “I did notice that you keep a pretty tidy pencil box. You and Luca probably have more in common.”
Now they were all smiling. “Maybe I could hang out with you both,” Rin said hopefully. “We could talk while we do a puzzle or something.”
Luca and Emma looked at each other and nodded. Then they laughed. Rin laughed too, and then remembered that her face hurt, and she winced.
Mrs. Heckmeyer blew her whistle, and the three friends walked happily together back to the air conditioning of Miss Penney’s class.