ᴄᴀᴛᴄʜ ᴍᴇ ɪғ ɪ ғᴀɪʟ [ᴏsᴄᴀʀ ᴘɪᴀsᴛʀɪ]

𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚞𝚎

It was the 15th of February 2011, George's 13th birthday. The Russells had this silent rule that when your birthday is coming you can choose the weekend activity for the family to participate in.

George ofcourse chose karting. George was a good karter and this year he would participate in his first European championship. 

Tara was jealous of him, George could do whatever he wanted. Tara is the youngest Russell and therefore there is some different pressure on her than the other three. When Tara turned seven years old her parents had told her how Tara was going to an acting school instead of getting karting lessons. Even though Tara had chosen karting as an activity, her parents had said no and chose a more 'feminine' activity to do.

George was however allowed to choose karting, and when his birthday came around he did just that. George was the only person in the family to know how badly Tara wanted to try karting. Some weekends they would go to the local track together and practice independently.

They went to the karting track with everyone who wanted to go. That ended up being the boys of the family, and Tara. Both Tara's brothers had experience in these karts. Benjy is 14 years older than Tara, making him 24 years old.

During the karting match of the Russells, one thing stands out. Tara is a damn good karter, with almost no practice she manages to defeat her father and her oldest brother Benjy, but George is too good to beat. Though she came close, she was only 1 second off the pace of her favourite brother. 

The words that her father said to her that they would always stay with her since it was the starting fuel for her career.

"Damn Tara, you might need to start karting as well. Better now than never right?"

 ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

Tara walks inside the motorhome of Prema in Sochi, where Marcus Armstrong is waiting. She is currently dating him, she has been for the past 6 months. Marcus knows he will move up to Formula 2 next year. Tara knows she will do another season of F3 with Prema. Tara is scared her relationship will fall apart. Marcus knows it will.

Marcus grabs her arm and drags her along to their driver's room. 

"Who are your teammates next year" He asks. His eyes look determined. He is going to make sure no one is attacking Tara or that she'll get bad teammates.

"I- I don't-" She begins but Marcus interrupts her. "Bullshit, Rene tells you everything. You're his star. Who are your teammates next year."

Tara hesitates. Will she tell? Marcus won't be happy. 

"Logan Sargeant and Oscar Piastri." Marcus's eyes widen. 

"Logan Sargeant as in old lover Logan?" Tara scoffs "Me and Logan never were and never will be lovers." 
Tara walks off since it's rather uncomfortable to talk about the future when she has a race to win.

 ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

It's December, Tara walks into the Prema base to meet her new teammates. Well only Oscar, she already knows Logan through karting. She knows who Oscar is since he was in the same year as her. There never have been any conversations between the two of them though. 

She walks into the office of Rene and Angelina to see Logan already there, talking with a brown-haired boy, who she assumes is Oscar. Logan looks over when he hears the door squeak.
"Tara! Come here! Okay Osc, this is Tara, you know the girl I told you about?" Oscar nods and he extends his hand to her. "I'm Oscar, although I think you already knew that" He smiles and Tara melts slightly. 

The door opens and the newly met trio turns around to see Marcus Armstrong and Robert Schwartzman entering the room. Marcus flicks his eyes between his girlfriend and the new rookie. Robert also notices and quickly starts talking about Prema and the rules for Logan and Oscar. Tara is also present, but she doesn't pay attention. Prema has been her team since karting, she is the very first karting driver who drove with the Prema sponsor. So to say that she knows the rules by heart is almost softly said.