Full Throttle

Noches Españoles

I flew into Barcelona late on Tuesday night. I loved stepping out of the airplane when the hot Spanish air smoothed over my skin, and I was excited to be back, racing again. Despite my excitement, I was tired. I trudged to collect my luggage, then past border patrol which I got through without any problems. My headphones were playing 'Tiny Dancer' by Elton John as I came out of the terminal and spotted Lando and Carlos waiting. Lando spotted me at the same time and a smile lit up his face.
"Why are you two here?" I asked, taking off my headphones and resting them on my shoulders.
"We are here to pick you up and take you to the hotel," Carlos answered, attempting to take my suitcase.
"I booked a taxi."
"Well you unbook the taxi, we are taking you to the hotel. It is good to have you back on the grid," Carlos grabbed my bag successfully this time and I audibly protested.
"How was your flight?" Lando asked as we began the walk.
"Yeah, it was alright."
"Have you had any food," Carlos asked from ahead.
"Yeah, I had some before I left for the airport, and then some on the flight."
"As long as you've eaten," Carlos replied.
"So on a scale from 10 to 10, how much did you miss me?"
"Ummm, 0," Lando chuckled.
"That's not in the scale!"
"Fine, 10. Happy now?"
"Yes. Thank you."

I slept in until 10am on Wednesday morning. It felt good. I could hear the city noise, and I had time to actually appreciate how nice my hotel room was. I checked my phone and saw that I had two messages from Lando.
Lando: Oi, Jessie
Lando: George is already in Barcelona. How about the three of us go out tonight? Or today, and then go drinking tonight as a celebration of you coming back to F1?
Read 10.02am
Jessie: Good morning to you too. Yeah, sounds good. Don't let me speak to anybody at any bars, though.
Read 10.05am
Lando: Haha, yeah, don't worry we won't. What time do you want to meet up?
Read 10.07am
Jessie: Let me have a shower and get dressed first, meet in the lobby at about quarter to?
Read 10.08am
Lando: Yeah, sounds good. See you then.
Read 10.09am
I hauled myself out of bed, stretching when I got up, and padded over into the bathroom to have a shower. I washed my hair and body and got out, drying myself off with the towel when an idea came to me. I snatched up my phone from the sink top.
Jessie: Scrap the plans, go out to the shops and buy hair dye stripper and two boxes of a hair dye of you and George's choice. Let's dye my hair. It needs a new colour anyway.
Read 10.27am

I got a knock on the door just after 11 o'clock and I went over to let Lando and George in. I'd put on an old white cropped t-shirt and some black shorts.
"Right, we got," Lando threw the hair dye stripper out onto the bed, "that, and," he threw the two boxes of hair dye onto the bed as well, "green hair dye. Oh, and also the kit that you said to get."
"Ooooh, green. I like it," I squealed, grabbing the box of dye stripper and going into the bathroom. I unboxed it, putting on the gloves and adding the parts into the squeeze bottle. George and Lando watched from behind me as I briskly put the cold liquid onto my scalp, rubbing it in before applying it thoroughly to the rest of my hair. I took the gloves off, chucking them in the bin in the corner of the bathroom, and grabbed the shower cap that sat on the ledge behind the sink, putting it over my hair. I turned to face the boys.
"Ta-da!"
"How did you do that so quickly?" George asked, shocked.
"Practice."
"How long to wait?" Lando asked.
"Half an hour."
The boys groaned.
"It goes by quicker than you think," I said rolling my eyes.

"You're right," George said as I leaned over the bath, washing the chemicals out with the showerhead, "it does go quicker than you think."
I rinsed all of the hair dye stripper out of my hair and Lando handed me a towel.
"Thanks," I said, wrapping my hair up. I wandered into the bedroom and plugged in my hair dryer once again. My hair took almost 10 minutes to dry, but the boys were shocked with the end result.
"You have blonde hair! Why didn't you tell us?"
"You never asked. Anyway, I don't like it, which is why I change it."
I picked up the two boxes of hair dye, throwing them to Lando, before picking up the clear plastic bag that contained a mixing bowl, a applicator brush, gloves, and clips. I strolled into the bathroom again, unpacking the bag. Lando put the boxes next to me. I opened one box squeezed the bottles out into the bowl, mixing the products together with the brush.
"Why not two boxes?" George asked, leaning against the door.
"If I only use both when I only need one, that's a waste."
I began applying the hair dye to my hair, sectioning off as I went, making sure that I got the whole of my scalp before moving on to the rest of my hair. The process took about 20 minutes. Then, I piled my hair onto the top of my head, and put the now clean shower cap back on.
"Same amount of time, although I might leave it for 40 minutes, just to be sure," I said. I'd ended up using only the one box.
"Why do you put the shower cap on?" Lando questioned as the three of us sat on my bed.
"Well firstly, the chemicals work quicker at higher temperatures, so the cap insulates the hair dye and my hair, making sure that the colour is distributed the best. Secondly, it ensures that I don't get hair dye everywhere while I wait."
"So it's a win-win," George added.
"Yeah."