The Team // A Formula One AU

Nico

We walk for what feels like forever. Again. All I can do is think as the others don't seem to be interested in holding a civilised conversation.

I wipe my brow. The sun hasn't even gone down a little. I got used to the cold in England and the north but now we're in the middle of the Mojave desert and I'm frying. I think it would've been more logical to do this tour the other way around so the temperatures kept a kind of constant, but no, Tom wanted to catch the sun.

"How much further?" I gasp. No one answers. "How far... Oh."

As we turn a corner, Downtown looms. It's very, very noisy and not at all a place we'd like to get lost at night. Nando checks his watch again, glances at the sky and snatches what little there is left of the map from Checo.

"This way," he says after a second and we follow him silently, dumbfounded by the place he's leading us into. "We could be back in half an hour."

Everything is moving, everyone is talking, there's music everywhere. This place is even crazier than the hotel street. Probably why Tom didn't want us to come here.

I yelp as Seb hits my shoulder. "What?"

"I said, do you want to?" He reiterates, apparently.

"To what?"

"Go through downtown instead of around it," he says very slowly and enunciating every word so much it becomes barely understandable. He shakes my shoulders. "I said-"

"I heard you, I heard you," I reply and wriggle out of his grip. "Yeah let's go in, it'll be a laugh."

Nando raises his eyebrows but Checo slaps me on the back. Boy, I'm being abused today. "The fat oracle has spoken," he says and leads the way.

We wander into the midst of all the shouting and gambling with Sebastian and Checo bickering again over fat ladies and God. I walk behind them while Nando leads from the front with his nose in the map, probably doing a better job of navigating than anyone else could. He glances at the sky sometimes but it's shrouded in buildings and lights so I don't know what good it does.

I take in everything. This place somehow manages to look both shady and completely normal at the same time. People try to invite us into casinos and there are bodyguards and bouncers all over the place. I'm actually a little afraid.

"I wish I was eighteen." I zone in to Seb's voice.

"What, win yourself a small fortune on the slot machines?"

"Yeah, and buy myself a big Audi or Range Rover..."

Checo laughs loudly. "Really, Baz? An Audi? You Germans couldn't build cars if it was programmed into you like breathing."

"What are you talking about?" Seb asks, dumbfounded.

"What would you buy then, Checo?" I chirp.

"Something good," he says. "Something... Italian."

"Not Mexican, then?"

"Well... I suppose not."

"Ah so-"

"A Ferrari, maybe."

"Hey but-"

"Or a Lambo!" He says loudly to cut me off again. We laugh as we get to the end of the noisy road. Nando turns right and we find ourselves once again out on the edge of the party. It can't be far now. 

"I see them I see them!" I hear someone yell ahead of us.

"Where!?"

In the distance, out past Nando, I see Lando sitting ten feet tall on Mick's shoulders. Max is jumping and waving and Daniel is texting, leaning against a wall. Alex is talking to Lance who's wringing his hands, probably wondering why he ever agreed to get in a taxi with these idiots.

"Well, well, well..." Checo says mockingly as we approach. "Mister 'I don't need a map, I have a phone.' How the mighty fall."

Max just laughs and hugs him. He looks pretty relieved. "I'll admit, I was a little hasty."

Mick and Nando study the map absorbedly while Lando tries to climb a nearby wall to regain his previous height. Daniel jumps up.

"Alright! I've spoken to Tom," he says, "We're meeting him at the hostel."

"Great," Max says as we begin to walk. "How far is it?" He shouts to the front of the procession.

"About a hundred yards," Alex replies.

"Yards?"

"What's a yard?"

"Oh for god's sake..."

I laugh tiredly. For a moment there I thought we'd never get home.