Turbulence [𝗠.𝗩.]

Travel Day, April

@JaguarF1 I TRIED! GERMAN IS HARD! - @JessicaBond57

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ENGLAND
AUSTRALIAN GP IN THREE DAYS
APRIL

I try not to laugh too hard as I watch Mick stare at me blankly.

We're sat in one of the small meeting rooms of the team's headquarters, doing a little challenge that Olivia is filming. It's a language-based one, and so far, Mick is mortified at how bad my German is. I know enough to say hello and to just about get by, but half the words he's saying are going over my head.

"Drück mir die Daumen." He repeats slowly, emphasising the words in a way that he must think will help me understand, but it really doesn't.

"Uh... Is it something about beer?" I hear Olivia descend into a fit of laughter behind the camera. Mick sighs and facepalms, clearly on the verge of giving up. "Is it a sausage thing?!"

That breaks Mick. He starts laughing, shaking his head. I sit there, holding my cards in one hand, gesturing wildly. I don't know what it means, and everyone is laughing at me.

"It means wish me luck. It's a, er, like you said when you had to speak to your mum." He snaps his fingers together a few times as the rest of his thought tries to elude him. "Uh, cross your fingers! Like that."

I pull my lips firmly together, thoroughly embarrassed by this. Another wave of laughter echoes out before it's my turn. Staring at the card in my hand, I roll my eyes, already knowing this is going to break Mick.

"Bagsy."

Mick stares at me blankly. He hasn't a clue, poor sod.

"It's like... um..." I rack my brain for a perfect example. "Like when you were at school and you wanted a certain seat, you shout bagsy. Or if there's only one chocolate bar left you shout bagsy on that."

"Oh! Like shotgun?" His eyes light up as he realises he's got it. I nod, discarding the card with a casual throw behind me. It's Mick's turn again, and I am scared, because so far I've done terribly. "Achtung!"

"Bless you." I say without any hesitation, which sends Olivia into another fit of giggles whilst Mick tries to stay composed. I know that's not what I'm meant to say, but he did sound like he sneezed.

"Achtung." He's really trying to help me here, and I am still totally lost.

"Is it a thing Duolingo should've taught me?"

Mick does a dramatic sigh, shaking his head. "You shout it to get attention, or if someone is about to walk into trouble."

"Sounds like a sneeze."

A few hours after the silly challenge, Mick and I are waiting at Heathrow Airport for our flight to Singapore, where we'll wait about an hour before hopping on another one to get us to Melbourne. It's going to be a long initial flight, and we've packed accordingly. My carry-on has all I need: phone, tablet, some cables and a battery bank to keep them charged. We're not flying all fancy first class like some teams might be. The two of us agreed to go economy because we just don't care about it. We want to get there and get there quickly.

"Here." Mick offers me a small travel cup filled with what smells like extremely sweet hot chocolate.

"Thanks." I mumble, taking it from him whilst I stare at the travel board. Our gate won't open for at least another hour or so, yet I'm staring at it as if I can will the time to go by faster. "How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing. You can buy the next one." He answers as he sits down next to me, huffing in what I know is a safe expression of boredom. We're both not great at waiting, and it's going to be a long few days for us.

"So, the sneeze word..." I start, pausing to give him a chance to repeat it, because I sure as hell can't say it properly.

"Achtung."

"I was thinking... It's kinda like when you tell someone to hold their horses." I half turn to face Mick, to properly engage him in conversation. "I mean, when you're saying that, you're basically telling them to hold up a second. Could be anything from crossing a busy road to jumping to wild conclusions."

"Eh, sort of." Mick shrugs, tilting his head briefly as his face contorts to an expression of mild understanding. I'm probably talking out of my arse, and he's just being polite and engaging with me for the sake of shutting me up, isn't he? "It's more direct than holding horses, that's for sure."

"Yeah, we have some real weird sayings. The ones Olivia had me use are pretty easy to understand."

"Oh?" I have his interest now, and it's nice. We do get on well, even if I struggle to find common ground between us sometimes. "Like what?"

"Well, there's one you can say when people ask you dumb things or jump to wild conclusions: What's that got to do with the price of fish?" From the befuddled look on his face, I get that I've slightly confused him. "It's literally that. It's like when people are asking you something and then they bring up something entirely unrelated. So you use that to do it back at them."

He nods, sipping from his cup. The intercom speaker interrupts our conversation as a lady announces someone hasn't made it to a gate and that they have five minutes before it'll close. The speaker distorts her voice, making it tinny as it struggles with the volume it's set to broadcast at. I wince as the voice continues, repeating the words once more before going silent.

"Christ, they need better speakers. How are you supposed to know they've called your name if all you hear is—" I cover my mouth with my hand and mockingly imitate the sounds we'd just heard. Mick starts laughing, and I feel good about it. As dull as moments like this can be, it's good for us. We can be good friends. I hope.