Mirrorball - maxverstappen

1 - Wake up call

Stuttgart, Germany - 2017

What killed me was a feeling of uncertainty; while it's lovely to be a reserve driver for Mercedes—after all, that's the team I always wanted to drive with—watching Lewis and Valtteri put in lap after lap crushes my spirit.

I should be battling for podiums along with even victories. It's the middle of the season, declining a WEC and a Formula E seat might sound insane, but my grandfather always told me to never settle for less than you deserve, and I deserve to be apart of the pinnacle of Motorsport.
It's not the first time I've thought about this when standing under the shower, I get out, wrap myself in my bathrobe and dry my face on a different towel. It's race weekend here in Germany, my home race. My Parents, Grandparents and Siblings will all be in attendance, only to watch me sit there and do nothing, last year they were here to watch me
win, another step that helped me secure my F2 Championship.

The night dawns as I roam the halls of my parents mansion, I've always been lucky growing up, my Grandpa was a Turkish Guest-worker in the 70's when he came to here to give his Family a better life, in Turkey he was an Automotive Engineer, in Stuttgart, Germany he worked for Mercedes at the assembly line. Opa worked his way up and was one of the brains behind the first AMG engine and eventually became AMG's CEO, he's the person that pushed me into Motorsport, went to every kart-race, payed for my whole career, he was my engineer and my trainer. He's the person I want to see proud.

I arrived at my destination, the trophy room, each wall designated to one of the children sorted from oldest to youngest.  My parents were convinced each of the siblings had to go after a sport, three out of four later turning it into a career. My oldest brother Kaan is now a professional Footballer, he had been playing for Real Madrid for over 9 years at this point, even won the world cup back in 2014 for Germany. My Sister Yaren was the only one of us that didn't want to continue her sport, she was a great gymnast until she gave it up out of the blue one day, just a week after she had won the nationals. My second brother Elvan is now an Olympic Swimmer for Germany.
The fourth and last wall, me, a baby picture hanging with gold engraved letters: Alya Altin - June 30th 2000, my birthday. Trophies over Trophies, from karting, F4, F3 and F2, so many trophies that the shelves weren't enough and they had to be lined on the floor underneath.

„What are you doing here?"' My head turns to see my brother Elvan smiling at me. „Just thinking about how many more trophies I have than you." I joke arrogantly. He rolls his eyes at me, deep down I know he loved when I talked to him like this, I've always been a little arrogant and quite the opposite of humble when it came to driving, but Elvan always told me that these traits help me to succeed. „Why weren't you at dinner?" „Wasn't hungry" I respond „You missed out, mom made her famous börek" my mom is famous for a bunch of stuff, food isn't one of them though, I chuckle as I look at a picture of me receiving my F2 Championship trophy from Lewis.
„You're gonna get there Al, don't worry." He says as he puts his arm over my shoulder. „I believe in you" „thank you."

Elvan is only two years older than I am, he's one of my best friends and my biggest fans, this goes both ways.

„Go to sleep now, let's ask Kaan to take us shopping tomorrow, make him pay.." „I'M NOT GONNA DO IT" Kaan screams from two rooms over. I laugh as I make way to my room.

Morning - Saturday, June 10th 2017

„ALYA WAKE UP!" My eyes shoot open to my mothers voice „WHAT" My eyes meet a familiar person „Niki what...what are you doing here." Outside of him being someone I work with at Mercedes, he's also my Grandpas close friend, of-course he's also A F1 WORLD CHAMPION.
„Valtteri got a race ban from yesterday's incident at FP2, get up you have to drive." „What?" I look around the room: my two brothers, mother and grandfather are standing around my bed accompanied by Niki, Joppi (Valtteri's engineer) and my Trainer Keith . „Ok what, I..ok what happened?" „NO TIME ALYA YOU HAVE TO BE AT HOCKENHEIM IN 2.5 HOURS" my brother Kaan screams at me „OK OMG FORBID I ASK A QUESTIONS." „GO GET DRESSED." „STOP SCREAMING" I jumped out of bed to my Physio handing me my race kit. „helmet mama, I need my helmet." I say, rushing out of my room to get ready in the bathroom.