Mad and sad often go together. All afternoon I was mad and sad because Scarlett, Victoria, and Mara were stealing our idea and not including us. I know I didn’t include them when Phillip and I first sang on The Morning Mix, but at least I didn’t steal their idea.

After school when I walked in the door, Lily was crying. She looked funny because she was wearing nothing but her underpants and her big yellow rain boots. My dad was washing the dishes.

“Lily is having a crisis,” my dad said. “Leo, too.”

A crisis is when you cry about something that your parents are tired of hearing you cry about.

“What’s Lily’s crisis?”

“She wants to take a bath,” he said. “But she won’t take off her boots. I told her she has to take off her boots when she takes a bath. Now she’s mad at me. I think she’s coming down with a cold. She’s been grumpy all day.”

“Lily,” I said. “The sun came out. You can take your boots off.”

Lily looked at me and cried harder. Also, her nose was pouring.

My dad sighed and got a tissue.

I was afraid he was going to ask me to wipe Lily’s nose. But he said, “Lucy, can you please see if you can help Leo? He’s in the backyard.” He looked out the window above the sink to the yard. “Tell him I’ll come out in a few minutes and we can play soccer.”

I was going to say that I was having a crisis, too, but I thought it might throw my dad over the edge.

I walked out the back door. In the yard, Leo was hunched over like a little old man on the concrete path that goes from the house to our back gate.

“Hi, Leo,” I said. “What’s wrong?”

He looked at me with big sad eyes. “The worms are drying up. See?” He crouched down and pointed.

I walked over. There on the concrete was a dead worm.

“Worms can’t live in the sun,” I said. “Sometimes they die before they can get back to the dirt. It happens.”

“It didn’t die. It’s just dry.” With his chubby little fingers, Leo carefully picked up the worm and took it over to a muddy spot by the flowers. “Dad won’t help me put the worms back, Lucy. He’s so mean.”

“Dad isn’t mean. Sometimes parents get overthrown by us. It’s a thing.” I looked at the little hole full of dead worms. “Putting them in the ground isn’t going to make them come alive, Leo.”

Leo looked at me. “Don’t say that!”

I sat down on the path. “Why don’t we take a break? We could play soccer.”

Leo just joined a team for little kids, and he had a game coming up. I thought he would be excited to practice with me. But he marched over and put his hands on my cheeks and looked at me. He does that when he wants to say something serious, and it is super cute. “Lucy!” he said. “We need to put the worms back. They want to all be together.”

I got infected with Leo’s kindness. “Sure, Leo.” I started walking around, looking for dead worms to rescue. “When you grow up, you’ll probably invent tiny helicopter drones to fly around and save worms from drying out,” I said. “You’re a very nice kid.”

“Worms are very nice, too,” Leo said.

“I wasn’t nice to Scarlett, and now she’s being mean to me,” I said. “If I’m mean back to her, then she’ll just be even meaner back to me. It will be an infection of meanness.”

“Be nice to her and maybe she’ll be nice to you,” Leo said. “Make a playdate with her. I like playdates.”

An idea popped into my head. I stopped. “A party. Everybody loves parties. I could have a songwriting party on Saturday and invite the whole Songwriting Club. I’ll make invitations and put lots of glitter on them. Scarlett loves glitter.”

“Lucy!” Leo called out. “Look!”

In his hand, one little brown worm was wriggling.

“You’re saving that worm’s life, Leo!”

“It’s Chumpy,” he said as he dropped the worm into the mud.

I felt a song coming on.

Chumpy was so grumpy ’cause he dried out in the sun.

But Leo picked him up and put him in the mud.

Now Chumpy isn’t grumpy anymore.

Leo grinned.

Everybody loves a good rhyme.