The Team // A Formula One AU

Mick

"Do you think it's gonna burn?" Daniel kneels down as Max holds his new magnifying glass over a dried plant.

"Not yet," he replies.

"It's about thirty degrees so there should be enough heat," I say and Max grins. A brown patch appears on the leaf and a small flame erupts from it, burning and curling away until there's nothing left but a charred patch on the stone.

"That was so cool," Max says and looks around for more things to burn while we wait for Tom to get here with the keys which he forgot in the hostel. Sadly in this week's track carpark there isn't much that doesn't look important so we decide to return to the bus for paper or something similar. Max wratches through the box Weird Old Phil keeps on the seat next to him, I search around Tom's area and Daniel checks the overhead storage.

"Woah!" Max shouts and falls back onto the seat behind him, scuffling away from the plastic box.

"What?" I twist around lazily. The heat on the bus is even worse than outside it.

"There's something living in there!"

"What do you mean?" Daniel sidesteps up the aisle and peers into the box. He reaches his hand in slowly and moves a couple of papers. Max sits up slowly, still panting from the shock.

"It's some sort of squirrel," Daniel says. I take a few tentative steps forward and also peer into the box.

"Is it dead?"

"No, sleeping. But I think I found something we can burn. What on earth is this?"

Daniel holds up what looks like a fluffy dead rat and Max stands up again finally, taking a wary glance at the squirrel before taking the object from Daniel's hand. It just looks like a ball of hair.

"I have no idea," he replies. "It'll probably burn well though."

"Awesome."

Max carries it off the bus and I follow, thankful to be out of that furnace.

"Can I hold the magnifying glass this time?" Daniel asks and Max hands it to him. I sit on the path nearby. It starts with a small amount of black smoke which quickly escalates to a flaming green inferno which all three of us scramble backwards from. Finally it dies down to a melted plastic hunk which looks impossible to pry off the pavement and we stare at each other for a second before laughing and rolling around on the pavement like maniacs.

"That was so good," Max gasps as he stands up. We walk towards a crowd of the others who're eating oranges from a nearby tree over in the shade. I stop suddenly in my tracks.

"What?" Daniel says turning to look at me.

"I know what it was," I say and run my hand back through my hair.

"What what was?" Max asks. "You mean the furry thing?"

"Yeah," I say and look down the road to check if the adults are coming. Oh no.

"Go on then," Max encourages me. This is awful.

"We'll you know how we have more interviews scheduled this weekend?" I start and they both stare at me expectantly. "Well Weird Old Phil said he didn't want to look old so... He said bought a toupee."

Their faces go from confusion to realisation and finally to utmost horror. Then we burst into laughter. We burned Weird Old Phil's toupee.

"Maybe we should replace it," I suggest after I'm able to breathe again.

"With what? We're hardly going to go out and buy him a new one."

"Maybe we can find something in the bus?" Daniel suggests.

We turn around and once again enter Lucifer's cage to start hunting for something that resembles an artificial hairstyle. I go to the back and wade through Esteban's junk until I find his hairbrush. It's renowned throughout the team not just for being the only one any of us own but also for being the hairiest object any of us have ever seen. I take it down to show Max.

"How about this?" I say holding it in the air.

His face lights up. "Perfect."

He takes it from me and pulls the matted hair out, using a stray strand to tie it up 'nicely'. Daniel places it back in the box, next to the squirrel, and we vacate the area.

"What've you been up to, lads?" Tom's voice drifts over as we step off the bus. "Not causing any trouble I hope."

I catch Daniel's eye and choke down laughter. Max covers his mouth and I manage to say no before we run off to join the crowd and wait for Weird Old Phil to notice.

"Are we just not going to mention the squirrel?" I ask. Lando spins around and grips my arm tightly.

"You found Valentino? Is he okay!?"

"Who?" I ask. Lando's face goes pale then he grabs a bottle of water then sprints back to the bus. I guess that explains where that came from.