Little One ∞ George Russell

21 | Get to work

♪
Dabin (ft. Dia Frampton) - Bloom:
'Could we stay in bloom? Everything is new, ooh, ooh. I don't want to leave this room, just let me stay, let me stay with you. Could we stay in bloom?'

It was finally time. Today the team was leaving to go to Bahrain for pre-season testing. George was excited to get in the car again, the winter break had been longer than usual this year and the anticipation had him nearly going crazy. He met his trainer Aleix at his apartment and together they got in the car to go to the airport. It was weird to go to Bahrain for testing instead of Barcelona, but it was also a nice change. He hadn't told anyone about Fiona yet, he wanted to keep it quiet for as long as possible so they could keep the team's teasing and intruding questions away for the moment. It was difficult not to talk about it and George knew his trainer had noticed a difference in his behaviour but he had told him that he was just really excited to get in the car again.

After a long drive, the two of them arrived at the airport and soon after they found the rest of the team. It was the first time the full squad was together again so everyone was catching up with the people they hadn't seen until now. "Good morning". George said when they joined Nicholas and his trainer near the start of the queue. "Hey! Ready to get going again?" Nicholas asked and George nodded enthusiastically. Nicholas had become a good friend of his over the past year, they were close in age and he was a really friendly and fun guy so George liked him a lot. "Do you know if we're shooting challenges again this season?" He asked his teammate and he was already looking forward to it when he confirmed they would be.

George spotted Fiona at the back of the line with Madeleine and some of the other hospitality staff and he noticed his eyes kept wandering towards her. He had really fallen head over heels in love with this girl in such a short amount of time. He thought she looked so cute in her Williams team gear and the big hoodie she was wrapped up in. Their eyes crossed paths for a moment and he winked at her, seeing the blushes creep onto her face before George turned back to his team members again. "Come on, I think we can head to the gate". Aleix said and the four of them walked over to the security section of the airport. George hated having to go through all these checks every time so he was glad when they finally arrived at the gate.

The private Williams plane was ready so they could board straight away, George and Nicholas walking in front to take their appointed seats first. He was checking a few emails on his phone when he heard the giggle he had missed so much for the past few days. He lifted his head and looked straight into Fiona's eyes. Her mouth curled up into a smile and George showed her a small one as well. "Okay, so you know I'm not blind, right?" Nicholas said when she had passed their row and George sighed deeply while he put away his phone. He desperately needed to tell someone and Nicholas had asked him about his crush on her before so it didn't really matter. "Well yeah.." He said and Nicholas laughed. "What happened to 'But she has a boyfriend'?" George remembered their talk in the cafeteria a few weeks ago. "She broke up with him.."

It was a whisper but Nicholas slapped his arm and his eyes went wide. "That's good. So are you a thing now?" George nodded slowly and it caused his teammate to pat his shoulder. "Yeah, we've been hanging out a lot and we both confessed our feelings for each other so I guess we're a thing, yeah. It's not official or anything yet, but I really like her". They spend the next few hours talking about Fiona, Nicholas' girlfriend Sandra, the upcoming tests and before they knew it, the plane had landed in Bahrain already. It was nice to finally be in some warmer weather again because England had been horrible over the winter. The team got in different vans to go to the hotel and George was one of the first people to receive his key from the receptionist when they arrived. The drivers always got the suites at the top of the hotels and even though this was his third year in Formula One, he still couldn't believe his eyes every time he got to another hotel.