When Poppy Easton gets her dream job with her favourite F1 team, RedBull, she imagines a whole new life for herself on the road and managing the races. But, one press conference, a Aussie grid favourite catches her eye.
Suddenly, focusing on making...
"Do you remember everything I've written down for you?" I ask, placing my bag in the overhead container, looking down at Max with a soft voice. Max nods, sitting himself in the seat opposite mine. He grabs a notepad out of his pocket and waves it around, my best handwriting all over the front page. "I promise you, I'm not gonna say anything stupid. I'm old enough now to realise what to and what not to say." "Good. I've sent you an email containing everything anyways, you need to have optimism for the season but not arrogant about it. I know you were close last year, so this is going to be your season." "It's going to be my season." "Okay, so when we land we'll have about 3 hours to get settled before we need to be in the Paddock for the Press Conference. I believe you'll be with Daniel Ricciardo. Everyone loves you guys together from your RedBull days, so it should be fine." I reply, giving him a printed out sheet of today's events.
The plane begins to take off, and I place my headphones on and begin to start listening to music and typing up possible questions to quiz Max on. He's gonna get bored of me real quick, but it needs to be done to maintain a good brand image.
I grab my new phone with my RedBull case, and the background is a picture of me and Max from the day before. I take a photo of my window, and upload it to Instagram.
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liked by maxverstappen33, christianhorner, redbullracing f1easton: milton keynes -> bahrain. ready for the new season! #RBR #WeWinThese
I want to record as much as possible while I'm here, turning my phone towards Max. He sighs and goes on his phone and likes the photo. "Thanks!" I reply, enthusiastically. He nods, pulls his eye mask over his eyes and immediately goes to sleep. So jealous about how guys can fall asleep so quickly.
Hours fly by, me getting as much work done as possible and my eyelids slowly begin to get heavier. I continue to struggle on with the work I'm doing, every press onto the keyboard feeling like more effort than it's worth. I figure that it's best not to burn myself out before the season even begins, and close my eyes. My breathing calms down and I'm asleep instantly.
"Welcome to Bahrain. Good luck Max and Checo!" I hear faintly as my eyes open back up. Max taps me on the shoulder. "Rise and shine, we need to go." Quickly grabbing my stuff, I head off. The humidity hits me, and I immediately regret wearing my team hoodie.
After a quick car ride, we head to the hotel, where I get a very excited blonde running up and hugging me. My whole body tenses up as she wraps her arms around me, my arms just out as she's swallowing me whole. I raise my eyebrows as I have no idea who this girl is or why she's so excited to see me. "You must be Poppy! Oh my god, I've been so excited to meet you!" She releases me, and realises that I'm so very confused. "Oh, I'm so stupid. I'm Jamie. Perez's communications partner." "Ohh, hi! I've been really looking forward to meet you. Shame we couldn't meet before we headed here. We could have gone out for lunch or something and got to know eachother!" I reply. "I know, I'm sorry - family emergency kept me busy before we came here." "Not to worry, we'll find a time at some point this week. I went to the best brunch place last year on my internship, so we should head there." I say to her. "Sounds good. We haven't got long until we have to head to the paddock, so let's hurry up and get ready." Jamie replies, giving me another hug and running off to another team member with her suitcase rattling against the floor as she rolls it. I giggle.
Christian then walks up to me with my hotel key. "Room 5734. Be back down in 10." He says. "Sir, yes sir." Max and I reply, saluting to him like we're in the Army. He laughs while also not looking too impressed, and I wave goodbye to everyone while heading to my room.
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I open the door to my room, the coolness of the AC hits me and I welcome it with open arms, as I am absolutely roasting with the whole RB kit on. I wheel my suitcases in, slide my card into the electricity trigger and look around. This is a new hotel for me, as I've never done a Bahrain grand prix before, and it is fancy. The mirrors have celebrity lighting around it, and the golden hour lighting basks through the windows, illuminating the room. I kick off my shoes that have been on for way too long, and jump onto the bed. This bed has to be the comfiest thing of my life. Before I feel my eyes closing, there's a knock on the door, and the knocks won't stop. Slowly dragging myself up, Max meets my eye through the peephole. I open the door. "You ready?" He says. "More ready than ever." I reply.
He smiles back at me as we run down to meet the rest of the team, so we can head to the press conference and get the first race of the year started.
Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who's already adding it down to their reading lists and voting. Means more than you can know.
