the lakes - charles leclerc

𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟏𝟔

waking up on day sixteen of the lakes, alex and olive noticed a new building by main camp. looking like a shed, they wandered over to find an old computer with a keypad on a table, and a dingy hanging light from the ceiling. disturbing the rest of the group, they all began to ponder as to what was to happen today.

"why have they built shrek's bathroom in the lake district? and why does it have my grandma's computer inside of it?" georgia commented, laughing at her own joke.

the australian picked up a letter, summoning the group to sit by the fire.

"good morning, members of the lakes. today, you can win what you've been waiting for, yet didn't even know about: letters from home."

"shiiiiiiit," half of the group commented in unison.

"first, you need to spin the wheel, which will show up on the computer, to see whose letter you will be truing to win. you will be told to go to the computer room at certain points during the day, to get the code you will type in. if someone's name is shown on the screen, their letter will be attempted to be won, e.g. if john got karen and karen's name showed up on the screen, john will go in and type the code and try to win karen's letter. we wish you the best, lakers, and good luck."

"i can't do this, this is way too much pressure." maeve commented.

"more pressure than winning the world cup?" pierre retorted.

"yeah. fuck,"

the wheel was spun, and the fate was decided: charles' letter was in olive's hands; charles was selected to win pierre's letter (much to his mild annoyance after yesterdays scene); lando got adriana; and georgia's letter was to be won by adriana. their numbers were generated by a quick google search from the producer's phone: lando: 42657. adriana: 90584. olive: 15946. charles: 57941.

after what seemed like forever, adriana's name showed up on the screen. lando, with sweaty palms and cracked knuckles, sat down, entering the combination of digits he remembered to the best of his memory. utilising the song method alex mentioned earlier that dawn, he pressed each key with feared delicacy. begging for answers after hitting enter, the screen glitched and turned blank. walking out, head hung low, the englishman admitted defeat.

"did you get it?" a curious canadian pondered.

"i dunno. the screen glitched and went black. i don't know, i don't know, i'm freaking out and i'm fucking petrified of the answer to your question."

"hey, you've done the best you can. it's out of your hands. don't you worry about it anymore," she whispered, hands resting against his shoulders.

"fuck," he mumbled against her shoulder, grateful for the reassurance and contact.

this was the same ritual for the rest of the day. no one knew whether their figures were home runs, or far off base. they could only wallow in self pity or convince themselves that everything would be okay, and even professional athletes were lacking tactics as to how to approach this curveball.

after playing the waiting game for many hours filled to the brim with tension, hailey wandered to go fill her bottle up, before a piece of paper got shoved into the palm of her hand. curious, she read the letter, not thinking much about it. carefully going over every printed letter (alongside the realisation hitting her like a train), she screamed, dropped her water bottle, and sprinted back to main camp.

"GUYS! WE WON THEM!"

"WHAT?"

"WE'VE GOT ALL THE LETTERS FROM HOOOOOOOOOOOME!!"