Scandal

P9: First race

Irina makes her way through the paddock with her phone glued to her ear. "I already told you, Julia. I'm doing great." Irina tries to persuade her sister. Julia sighs. "You sounded more excited about it before you started."

"Well, I guess I thought it would be different. Don't get me wrong; I never thought it would be easy, but I don't know how to describe it. It just doesn't feel like it used to." Julia intervenes, "It's okay to feel jealous-" Irina cuts her off. "Who would I be jealous of? Please."

She can sense her sister rolling her eyes. "Let me finish. It's okay to feel jealous of your past self. You want things to go back to what they were, but you and I both know that will never happen. You have a chance to do something great with this opportunity, Irina. Don't waste it."

Irina turns right into the breakfast area of Mercedes. It's practically empty. "Well, you're not the first one to tell me that." Her sister laughs, "Then maybe you should listen. You're risking nothing for everything; you have no reason to be scared."

An ironic laugh leaves Irina's lips. "Yeah, thanks; I'm not scared at all anymore." Her sister laughs, "Who could you possibly be scared from?" Irina takes an apple and hums. "Anyway, I'll leave you be. Love you." Irina answers, "Yeah, I love you too. Bye."

She takes a bite from her apple and turns around, but chokes when she sees Lewis standing in front of her. "You good?" He takes a step closer. Irina stops him from coming closer by putting her arm between them.

After a couple of seconds, she turns around to throw her apple away. She can feel him following her to the garbage. She opens the bin and throws the apple away before turning swiftly around and facing him.

"What are you playing at?" She plainly asks him. He looks taken back but not shocked. "I don't know what you're talking about." Irina shakes her head. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. Unless 44 actually stands for your IQ level?"

A soft smile makes its way to his lips. "I see you're slowly getting back to your old self. It's nice to see." She takes a step closer. "I'm being serious, Lewis." He looks down at her. "So am I." 

She loses the game and looks down. "You said that we should act normal towards each other." He nods at her. "Then why are you not doing that?"

He looks over her head as if he has to think or have the courage to say whatever it is he has to say. "Do you think we will ever be able to act normal around each other?" His eyes trail back to hers at the end of his question.

After a moment, she answers, "You should just worry about winning that race of yours today. Valtteri looked pretty fast on those softs yesterday. You wouldn't want him to take the first win of the season, would you?"

A soft chuckle leaves his mouth. "I didn't realize I was talking to my number one fan." She lifts her brows. "Trust me, you're not. Let's see if you've still got it out there, Hamilton." She leaves him standing alone.

Fast forward a couple of hours, and it's as if Irina's words have stricken Lewis. He's definitely not driving badly, but the Ferrari driver, Sebastian Vettel, is leading the race, which no one would've imagined, not even Irina.

Hamilton had the perfect getaway at the start of the race and even managed to lead for a while, but his early pit stop gave Vettel the advantage to put his foot down and create a small space between him and the drivers behind.

She shakes her head as Toto slams his fist on the table. No champion is only fifth. Irina takes her headset off and whispers to him, "Why don't we go with plan B?" At first, she doesn't believe that he heard her, but when he sighs and turns around to talk to Niki, she's sure he did.