The Team // A Formula One AU

Daniel

Sleeping on the bus is actually not that bad. I think the weirdest thing is seeing Valtteri in his striped pyjamas and learning that Kimi even keeps his sunglasses on at night, but that's probably to block the light from the night sky. When I wake up before dawn it's shimmering with stars and somehow brighter than the land, which is just blackness stretching out in every direction.

I check my phone. We've been driving for six hours and we haven't even left Texas.

I sleep for another five hours and wake up to a strong breeze on my face. I fell asleep with my pillow pressed against the window and now every window that works has been opened, and it's pretty clear why. Nico must have thrown his half of the blanket onto me in his sleep. I push it off as soon as I open my eyes.

"Morning," Max yawns from across the aisle. "We've been going for almost twelve hours, we're almost in Arizona."

As far as I can tell I haven't missed much. The desert outside still looks the same in every direction, although it is less black now. Orange sand, green little bushes and tall cacti sticking out of the flat land. In the distance there are some rocky outcroppings, remnants of landscapes from thousands of years ago.

"How long left?" I ask, keeping my voice low so as not to wake Nico or anyone else who might still be asleep.

"Probably six and a half hours. Tom said we could go to the grand canyon but it'll add two hours to the trip and we won't have time to chill at the hotel before our slot at the track."

"Hmm... Probably best not to."

"Next time," Max grins.

Gradually most people wake up, but there are always a few who prefer to pass the time more quickly by sleeping as much as possible, including Nico who's blocking out the sunlight with his sleeve. Erik puts a stop to that at around eleven when he tells us we have homework.

"I want you all to choose an interesting overtake from Formula One. Prepare a three-minute speech including information on the racecraft, strategy and importance of this overtake to present to everyone on the way into Nevada. Don't tell anyone what you've chosen though, we're all going to try to guess from the quality of your description."

"I'm sorry Erik, I thought this was our day off?"

"Alex!" Max shakes the boy sitting next to him and Alex laughs.

"I'm joking, I'm joking!"

"It is a bit weird though," George says. "We haven't had lessons on the bus before."

"It isn't much," Erik rolls his eyes. "You have at least three hours and it'll take you twenty minutes, maximum."

"What if I get bus-sick?" Nico asks. His eyes are red and puffy from sleeping in the heat with his arm over his face.

"Nico, this task is so easy you could do it in your head while you look out of the window."

"Do you want to swap seats?" I ask him and he nods. I shove our blanket into the overhead compartment and sit back down in the aisle seat as Erik goes back to the front of the bus. Nico rests his head on the seat in front and falls back into a nap.

I play cards with Mick, throw socks at Seb and forget all about the assignment, at least for a little while. It's hot for sure but we're more used to it now and a few of the guys go shirtless anyway, much to Weird Old Phil's dismay. When not even Nico can sleep anymore I put on some music which makes the bus ride go even more quickly. As the sun rises higher though, we all start clamouring for a break.

"I'm hungry!" Lando moans.

"Me too."

"And my legs are hurting," Charles adds. "Can we stop somewhere?"

"We could park in the shade and hopefully cool the bus down a bit."

"I'll stop at the next service station!" Tom calls from the driver's seat. It isn't long before we're parked under some trees and finally getting a break from the road.

"Put a shirt on, George!"

"Oh, right..."

"Now lads, follow me for some stretches then we'll do a quick lap of the car park."

I glance around as Weird Old Phil forces us into a semi-circle around him. Nobody is objecting to some stretches, but I kind of feel like disappearing into the café halfway around his lap.

It's exactly what we do. Carlos buys a halfway-healthy chicken fajita along with a pack of gummy bears which he sneaks into his pocket, out of sight, and Lando does the same, giggling conspiratorially. Once a bunch of us have our food we jog back to the bus to eat outside in the shade. Luckily Weird Old Phil has wandered off as well.

"So what have you chosen for your presentation?" I ask Mick at our picnic bench.

"Austria-"

I laugh as he stops himself.

"Daniel! I'm going to have to change my whole presentation now!"

"You fell for it," I grin and take a mouthful of my soup.

"How are you drinking soup right now, it's like forty degrees..."

"They didn't have many other McJanett-Approved choices, sadly."

"McJanett?" Carlos asks. "What's that?"

Mick furrows his brow and turns to the boy sitting beside him. "That's our fitness coach's surname, Carlos."

"Weird Old Phil McJanett," Lando laughs. "It sounds like a storybook."

"Oh, he'll go down in legend, for sure..."

There's a nice breeze out here and it isn't too dusty despite the sand all around us. It's nice in the shade of the trees, listening to the leaves swooshing against each other. It almost reminds me of Australia.

"Ten more minutes lads, then we'd better get going. Make sure you've used the toilets if you need to."

I sigh and take another mouthful of soup. I could almost stay here forever.

"Who's up for another game of poker before the presentations?" Mick asks and I raise my hand. One more game of poker, an hour of Erik's session and then we should almost be there. Considering this isn't a day off, it really hasn't been bad at all.