CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT | Charles Leclerc

Chapter 4

Luci's pov

Stepping foot in the Monaco circuit was one of the most surreal experiences I'd ever had. Since childhood I remember sitting and watching the Grand Prix with my father, hoping one day I could be there to watch it in real life. Now, I was making that dream a reality - and even better, I was working there??

"No way is this real" I comment to my friend, who is obviously having the same realisation as me as she stares in front of her, starstruck.

I click back to reality as I realise a very formal looking women walking in our direction

"Hi girls! You must be Luciena Ramirez and Olive Walker, am I correct?"

We nod in unison - ensuring we create the correct impression upon her.

"Brilliant! I am Andrea Swift, but please just call me Andrea and I will be guiding you around the track and helping you get settled in. I will also be present at any press shots or interviews with you to ensure I can step in if there is any problems. Does that all sound okay?" She said with a warming smile on her face which seemed to ease Oli's worries. Mine as well.

"Thank you so much, Andrea. That sounds perfect." I say as my friend nods in agreement.

"Brilliant. Today we're going straight into the deep end with racer interviews so I hope you already have questions prepared for them or else you may struggle as we have.." she looked to her watch to confirm the time. "Twenty minutes until you they'll be here. Alright?"
She looked at us hopefully as I looked to Olive with fear in my eyes.

What she, Andrea, didn't know was that instead of preparing for the day today, me and Olive spent our night getting blackout drunk and completely forgot about the task we actually had to complete. Even thinking about it made my head surge with pain.

"We have. Thank you so much." Olive quickly butted in and gave me the look before I ruined my chance before I even got there.

"Perfect. I'll meet you back here in five minutes. I just need to speak to some other clients of mine."

She gives a wave and swiftly walks back toward another group of people around 100 meters away from us.

"Olive, I am not sure about you but personally I haven't prepared a single question for this, so unless you have a million we're about to make a complete fool of ourselves in front of the drivers. Oh and on NATIONAL television." I became overwhelmingly panicked as I urged my friend for any excuse on why on earth she lied to Andrea.

"I don't either Luci, but if she knew that, we would instantly be labelled as bad employees. You will be able to come up with them on the spot. You'll be great Luc." Olive said this with an encouraging smile, although her wise words of wisdom still didn't bring me any further faith in my abilities.

******

Those five minutes were the shortest of my life, and before we knew it me and Oli were about to go on stage in front of God knows how many people and interview the actual, real life F1 drivers?

Andrea came up behind us and passed us our microphones. "Right girls, in a few minutes I want you to go up on the stage and introduce yourselves and create some simple, lighthearted chat, making sure you engage the audience. Then when you see me give you a thumbs up, I'll be at the front of the crowd, I want you to introduce the drivers. You two will be with Carlos and Charles, the Ferrari boys. Are you both of complete understanding?"

We nod, although, when I heard her mention Charles' name my heart did momentarily give a slight flutter. Was I seriously about to speak to the Charles Leclerc? The man I'd had a crush on for the past five years?

"Brilliant. Time to go. Remember I will be in the crowd. Look for me." She runs off, leaving me staring at Olive, again, in pure shock.

"We're about to talk to the Ferrari boys Oli, what is our life??" I say, quietly so no one else can hear, but loud enough to show my excitement.

"You mean you are about to talk to your million year long crush, Luci? Maybe this is the start of your beautiful love story!" She jokes as we both giggle at her farfetched comment.

"Right girls, time to go up on stage now." A man, part of the crew, directs us from behind. Disrupting our delusional dreaming.

We jump up the stairs onto the stage, grasping onto our microphones. The crowd begins to shout louder and we give a small, awkward wave as we get to the middle of the stage.

"Hi everyone! My names Luciena Ramirez!" I announce.

"And I am Olive Walker!" Oli continues.

"And we're so excited to be here today!" We both say together.

-

We continue to hype up the audience, getting them to scream to show how excited they are for the upcoming interview, as well as the race at the weekend.

Then, I see Andrea in the crowd giving us the thumbs up to signal that we can introduce the Ferrari boys. Now this is it, I'm about to meet Charles Leclerc for the first time, on a stage at the Monaco Grand Prix. It's like I'm dreaming!

-AUTHORS NOTE-
I am SO sorry to leave it on this cliff hanger but I needed to get this out and it was starting to get longer than usual 😫. BUT I hope you're exciteddd because we're about to ACTUALLY see Charles and Luci's proper first interaction next chapter! (I know I said it would be this chapter but oops)

Also thank you for the love and support on here and on tiktok (if you don't follow me my username is f1belsfics I think you should check it out 😚)

And finally I hope some of you noticed the Taylor Swift reference of queen Andrea Swift. I could not think of anything to call her and obviously she had to sound like a very important women so who's better than Taylor's mother herself?

Love you lots,
Bels xo