Daylight, paul aron

chapter three

-After the walkthrough yesterday I felt like I understood what this race would be like.

Going through strategies was similar to Formula four, except it was a lot more professional. Oliver, who was typically the first to laugh in any situation, was surprisingly very serious. Gabriel was also like that, but most of the time he was fairly serious. I liked having the balance of fun playfulness and more work conversations filled with advice from my teammates. I liked to think I was somewhat in the middle. Truly balancing our team.

I ate Dinner with Teddy and Ari and chatted with them about how exciting it was here in Bahrain, especially the people I had talked to.

-

I woke up to some messages from my mom. She and my sister arrived late last night because of flight delays. They decided not to come up to my room since I was sleeping. (Was I jetlagged?)

I texted them asking whether they wanted to meet me for some breakfast or not. I got ready again knowing I would need to change into fireproofs and my racing suit later in the day.

As I finished drying my face off, my phone started to ring.

"Good morning bunny."

"Morning mommy."

"Cathy and I will be ready very soon. We'll meet you at the breakfast bar downstairs. Sounds good?"

"Yup, see you soon!"

"Alright love you."

"Love you too." I hung up and finished getting ready. The elevator wasn't too busy but there were other teams there. Probably getting an early start like me.

As the doors opened I thought to myself. 'I wonder whether Ari is up or not. Was Teddy even able to wake him up? Probably had to dump water on him again.' I smiled at the thought of Teddy having to dump a glass of water over Ari's face just to get him up.

They weren't there yet so I headed over to an empty table. I set my phone down there then headed over to the bar. I picked out some eggs which were full of protein and were aligned with my special racing diet.

I set the plate down. I knew it would be rude to eat without them so I went on my phone Instead trying to pass the time scrolling through Pinterest and Instagram.

"Oh Maggie!" My mom rushed up to me. I stood up from my chair and opened my arms. When my mom gave me hugs she kind of held you tight while rocking you side to side. I hadn't received a hug like this for a while, as I hadn't seen my mom for a while.

I moved over greeting my sister, Cathy. She didn't like being touched. So hugs and rubbing her back was out of the question.

They went over to the breakfast bar and chose much different meals than what I had chosen. My mom had eggs and toast with jam and yogurt on the side. Cathy had chosen a sugary cereal with strawberries. My mom took one look at my plate and stood straight out of her chair like she was the flash of something.

She grabbed my plate and started filling it up with bacon and brought me a spoon for the vanilla yogurt she picked out for me.

"A couple pieces of scrambled eggs will not get you through qualifying." She scolded me with a pointed look. I nodded in reply, stuffing the eggs and bacon in my mouth.

Breakfast had to be quick since I was heading down to the track soon with Gabriel and Oliver. I asked my sister and mom about their flight and how everything went. The conversation was very quickly interrupted by my notifications.

Trident trio 🔱3️⃣

Goethe 🧍🏼:
we have to head to the track rn

Gab 🏆:
I'm eating rn

Goethe 🧍🏼:
hurry up then

I just finished eating
I'll find you first Gab

Goethe 🧍🏼:
always second choice 😔

Gab 🏆:
no one cares.

I heading to you rn Gab

Gab 🏆:
I see you

Goethe 🧍🏼:
It's like I don't even exist to you
guys anymore ☹️

jaja
true

I spotted Gabriel at his table with his family.

"You got everything?" I asked while raising my large bag with my elbow, since it hung off my shoulder.

"Yup, got my extra strong deodorant in here." He joked. It wasn't rare for Gab to joke or anything, it just didn't happen too often.

"Good thing." I heard Oliver say. I turned around.

"Glad to see you're happy again." I smiled knowing he would joke about our messages for a while. We started to walk towards the car rentals, Gabriel was driving us down to the track today.

"I almost thought about ditching you guys after you ditched me like that." Gabriel rolled his eyes at Oliver's words in a playful way.

-

Today was finally race day. After all of my hard work and practice I knew things would go just as well as qualifying and the sprint race. I qualified eleventh out of the thirty four drivers. Gabriel qualified first, Ari was second and Oliver third.

During the sprint, I managed to get three points and finished eighth.

I replayed getting out of my car and being hugged by Ari over and over. Every time I caught myself smiling. These were my first points and they most definitely would not be my last points.

I got my racing suit on and let it hang off my waist. I peeked outside of the team trailer and waved my mom over. She was waiting for me to get dressed to braid my hair.

She got inside and I shut the door.
"We can sit over here." I pointed to the couch knowing my mom would be the only one actually sitting on the couch. I sat down criss-crossed with my lucky hair elastic ready in hand.

My best friend Belle had given me the hair elastic. It was a plain purple hair tie yet it was something I would never dream of giving away. That was the difference between Belle and I, she was selfless, wanting the best for everyone, willing to give away anything for their own joy. Whereas I couldn't give a hair elastic to someone. I am selfish. I'm working on it, Ari would want me to say.

By the time I was done reminiscing, my mom was asking for the elastic.

"Oh here." I tugged it off my wrist and passed it up to her.

"You're going to be a great Bunny." She kissed the top of my head. "I'm so proud of you." I looked up at her and saw the huge smile on her face.

I hugged her bye and slowly jogged back to the garage. I zipped my racing suit up and pulled my balaclava over my braided hair.

I was ready.

A/n:
i feel like some character development needs to happen with maggie. im thinking paul might help with that. 🤔