Hearts & Minds | WATTY Winner

Chapter 3 | Dolores Park | Part 2

"Oh, the old favorites. 'Blowin' in the Wind,' 'Kumbaya,' the Indigo Girls." She hesitated before revealing her next tidbit. "I sometimes...write songs too."

He raised his eyebrows. "Say what? Like Lorde? Or Jewel? You write original stuff? Now I have to hear you perform. You must give me an acoustic concert."

She shook her head. "No, no, no. They're just silly little diddies. Dumb songs. I don't play them for anyone."

He raised his eyebrows. "Not even your mom and sister?"

"Not even them. Well..." She backtracked. Nora didn't like to tell half-truths, even to make a point. "Sometimes, but not all that often, and only because they can hear me through the walls. Besides, there's no time. The Cottage keeps me busy." Saying it reminded her that soon that would no longer be the case—all because of Theo's mother. She shook off the unpleasant thought. He must've been thinking the same thing because he looked away and didn't say anything.

They had reached the edge of Dolores Park, at its southwestern corner on the top of a hill. The park was a wide swath of lawn a few blocks long, sloping downhill between Church and Dolores streets. They were on the end looking over a large playground that was always swarmed by children of every age. In the middle of the park, people lay here and there on the lawn sunbathing despite the post-rain damp and chill. Some walked around evangelizing or selling drugs. The homeless co-mingled with those employed by tech companies, people off their meds with the relatively sane. Dogs ran around off-leash, chasing tennis balls and Frisbees, and nosing into people's picnic coolers. Theo and Nora unclipped the dogs, who roamed by the nearest trees, sniffing and marking their territories.

"The city is amazing," Theo said with a satisfied sigh. "And to answer your earlier question in a less obnoxious way, I am having a good time here." He offered her a smile and she returned it tentatively. "Especially since you're showing me around."

He was just being flirty, but joy flooded Nora's heart anyway. She watched him stretch his arms up to the sky, letting her eyes drift over the skin of his stomach, exposed for a few seconds. "The city's okay," she felt like saying. "You are amazing." But, being Nora, she didn't say anything except a boring old, "Oh, this is just our usual walk."

"Hey," Theo stopped stretching and pointed. "Isn't that your sister?"

Rainey was indeed in Dolores Park. She held her giant, intimidating camera and was shooting pictures of people. Nora let out a slow breath.

"That's Rainey all right."

"So she's the photographer and you're the songwriter."

"Hardly. I mean, the songwriter part. And Rainey...well, I guess she has an artist's soul." Goodness, it sounded so cheesy, but it fit the bill. "That is true."

"Let's go see what she's doing." Theo started walking in Rainey's direction, and Nora reluctantly followed, sad to have to share him. She also dreaded Rainey's sisterly taunts. The good thing about Rainey was that in almost all situations, she preferred attention to be showered upon her, so in this instant, when she was working with her camera, she probably wouldn't be able to concentrate too well on teasing Nora or flirting with Theo. Most likely she was in "The Zone," as she called it.

"Hello there, Miss Ko-Harvey," Theo called out. Rainey looked up from her camera, which was pointed at a beautiful pair of girls lounging on lawn chairs, one in a gold lamé jumpsuit, the other in a silver prom dress. Even though it wasn't a warm day, the latter girl's shoulders were bare in her strapless gown. Nora's back was suddenly sweaty and itchy, and she was completely unglamorous, all bulky and swaddled up as she was.

Rainey blinked a couple of times—yes, she was definitely Zoning—taking a moment to recognize her blushing sister and handsome cousin. Nora looked a little—what was it? Rainey sensed something afoot and raised her eyebrows. "Well, well, well. Aren't the two of you cozy."

Nora wanted to hiss at her sister to hush up, but that would mean calling attention to herself in front of Theo. The next best thing she could muster, and her fallback when it came to dealing with Rainey in public, was to pretend she had not heard her.

Theo glanced from one sister to the other. Nora faked obliviousness with him too. He raised his eyebrows and said to Rainey, "That's a sweet camera you've got there."

Rainey beamed. She loved her camera. "Well, thank you very much. It was a graduation gift from your grandfather." She paused. "Huh. That's kind of weird to say. Grandpa Cole. Uncle Cole. Grandpa Cole. Uncle Cole. "

"Uncle Cole was also a grandfather, Rainey," Nora said. "Lots of men are."

"It's just weird. I mean to think that our own dad, may he rest in peace, could've been a granddad too, if one of us had had a kid when we were teenagers."

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     Hey, Wattpad Friends! Thank you for reading the middle part (part 2) of Chapter 3: Dolores Park. HEARTS & MINDS is coming right along, isn't it just? The third and final part of this chapter follows. I'm also working on putting together the playlist that inspired me while writing this novel, but I want to kind of assign each chapter or character a song. I need to think about it more.

Thanks, again! Please vote and comment! —Olivia