Burning Desire

~Chapter Forty Seven~

Race week.

First race of the season.

Bahrain.

I have not slept all week. I'm tired but I'm so awake. I've been so excited but incredibly anxious awaiting this week. I've been hanging around a few of my fellow formula one racers, and getting them to give me any tips. With Alex in Williams, George in Mercedes, and Lando in McLaren, these guys have been the most helpful with getting me mentally ready for this weekend.

My trainer, Joseph, who I started working with after my Hawaii trip, has been getting me ready physically. Along with the AlphaTauri team, getting me to work on the simulator a couple days during the week and then when I'm home, I practice using my own.

Today was media day.

Media day stresses me out. I've never been good with public speaking, or talking to people for that matter, so it makes me nervous, especially considering I'm officially a formula one driver and it's my debut race in a way. You'd think that with the amount of times that I did practice interviews in my room when I was a kid would pay off, but no. It hasn't. I still stutter and jumble up my words. But I learn to laugh it off afterwards, and not worry about it so much.

Joseph drove us to the paddock this morning, and when he parked the car, I got out and adjusted my clothing. I was wearing a pair of tight fitted jeans, with the AlphaTauri shirt tucked in. A belt around my waist and a pair of air forces. My hair was out and lightly curled, because I thought that I'd make myself look presentable today. I had light makeup on and a few pieces of silver jewellery.

Joseph and I walked to the gates and tapped our passes on the scanner, and walked in when it beeped. I placed the pass into my pocket and had the end of the lanyard sticking out.

"How are you feeling?" Joseph asked as we made our way through the paddock to the AlphaTauri motorhome.

"I think I'm doing ok?" I said in a questioning tone. "Today's just media day, tomorrow is when things actually start"

"They'll be focusing on you a lot today," he reminded me.

I nodded. "I know. I kind of feel bad for Lando"

"Why Lando?" Joseph questioned.

"He got paired with me for the interviews" I stated.

Joseph let out a small chuckle. "Do you think they did that on purpose?"

I shrugged. "Who knows. But I do know that a lot of people will be watching, that's for sure"

It's been weeks since Hawaii and Lando and I still haven't talked about anything that happened. We talk about the trip, Natalie and Max, but never what happened between us. We hang out quite often though. Stream together or just hang out. I may have stayed the night at his place a couple times. But it was strictly sleeping!! Nothing more, nothing less. Sleeping.

Speaking of Max and Natalie, they are literally the cutest couple to ever exist. Natalie came to England to see me, well she says it was for me but I know that it was for Max. She stayed at my place a couple nights, but mainly stayed at Max and Lando's place. They call, facetime and text each other quite often but they know when they need their own time to relax and detox from the world. Their little teleparty netflix dates some nights are quite cute.

Joseph and I walked into the AlphaTauri motorhome and Amy was the first to greet me.

"Good morning" she smiled when she saw me. "How are the nerves?"

"They're definitely there" I let out a nervous chuckle.

Amy flashed me a warm and comforting smile. "Everything will be fine. Just think of it as a new and exciting experience"