Until she wins

15- back on track

It was 3 weeks later and Max had spoken to the courts and my social worker about letting me go to races with him. At first they were very sceptical but with some persuasion they finally came to an arrangement. I was allowed to go to the occasional race. That was it though, I didn't even get to go to practice or qualifying. It was still better than nothing. 

Last night I had flown in to Miami for Max's next race. Unfortunately Richard and Fiona had to come with me and they had to go to the race too. I didn't really mind it though, I was back. 

"Where do we go now? Is Max going to meet us somewhere?" Fiona said as we got out the taxi.

"No we just use the passes he got for us to go into the paddock." I responded rolling my eyes.

I started walking towards the paddock entrance, ignoring Fiona's shouts for me to wait for her and Richard. I knew exactly where I was going. I reached the entrance, tapped my pass and walked through the barriers. I hadn't been to a race in months but it felt like I never left.

I immediately walked over to the red bull hospitality when I heard someone familiar calling my name. I turned round to see a tall, curly haired man, wearing an RB shirt, it was Daniel Ricciardo. I'd always been close with Daniel as he was one of Max's best friends on the grid and he never failed to make me laugh.

"Abi you're back!" he said in his thick Australian accent.

"Kind of, I'm still with my foster parents but they're finally letting me go to some races now!"

"Oh well, it's good to see you again kiddo!" he smiled, ruffling my hair.

I couldn't help but smile back. Daniel had a smile that could make even the saddest person feel happier. A few minutes later we were interrupted by Richard and Fiona finally catching me up. Richard looked slightly dumbstruck from seeing me have such a casual conversation with an f1 driver. He quickly shook this off before extending a hand for Daniel to shake.

"I'm Richard, Abigail's foster dad."

Daniel shook his hand before saying that he needed to head back for a meeting. As he left, he mouthed something to me, *they look like assholes*. I tried to hide my laughter as I continued to walk towards the red bull facility. 

As I approached the trailer I saw Christian Horner standing outside it, talking to my dad. I quickly darted behind a nearby food van and strained my ears trying to listen to what they were saying.

"I heard your daughters back, is that true?" I heard Christian say.

"Yeah... apparently she's demanding to go back to Max. You know I really thought the new life would be good for her but she's still the same selfish little cow" my dad sighed.

I heard Christian chuckle. I felt betrayed, I thought things would have been at least a little bit better with my dad now, but apparently not. And for Christian to agree and laugh about me with my dad hurt too, I thought he didn't mind me. I couldn't listen to this for much longer so I stepped out from behind the van and cleared my throat loudly.

Both men looked up with slightly shocked and embarrassed expressions on their faces. They quickly replaced this with false smiles.

"Abi! It's so good to see you again! How are you?" my dad said trying to act like he cared.

"Alright I guess." 

"I need to go and have a quick chat with Max before the race..." Christian butted in trying to get away from the situation.

"I'll come with you!" I added.

"Alright well can you go and find him for me please" he said clearly not wanted to be around me at the moment.

I walked off into the red bull hospitality, flipping them off behind their backs as I went. I made my way over to Max's driver room and knocked on the door, hoping he'd be in there. A couple of seconds later he opened the door.

"Oh hey you made it!" he smiled. "Have you seen Kelly and P yet?"

"Wait they're here?" I hadn't seen them in so long so if they were here I obviously wanted to go and see them again.

"Yeah they were in the garage last time I checked"

"Alright well I'm gonna go find them then. Oh and also Christian wants to talk to you before the race." I added before dashing off to the garage.

Penelope spotted me before I spotted her. "ABI!" I heard her shout.

She came running up to me, shortly followed by Kelly. Before I knew what was happening she was hugging me tightly with her little arms. 

"Hey!" I said picking her up. "I missed you so much!"

This was completely true, one of the things I had missed most was seeing P and being like a big sister to her.

"Oh Abi how are you? It's been so long" Kelly asked.

"I'm ok, just happy to finally be back"

"Mummy can I stay with Abi?" P asked Kelly, giving her puppy dog eyes.

Kelly gave me a look to ask me if I was ok with that and I nodded. "Go on then!" she agreed.

A smile spread across P's face. I put her down and lead her back out into the paddock. I wanted to avoid Richard and Fiona and make things feel like they were before I had to leave. 

"Hey do you wanna do something fun?" I asked P "Should we go and prank Lando?"

P nodded excitedly and I lead her over to the McLaren trailer. As we got there Zac was standing by the entrance, I managed to convince him that P just wanted to say good luck to Lando before the race and he let us into his driver room to wait for him. Apparently he was just finishing filming something for the McLaren YouTube channel.

As we got into the room I looked round for something we could use to prank him, until finally I got an idea. "P can you go and see if you can find me some paint, preferably hot pink?"

She nodded before running off excitedly. Now I needed to get Lando's helmet. I quickly ran through into the McLaren garage. I somehow managed to sneak past the entire pit crew and grab his helmet which was sitting on a table. I then sneaked back to his driver room where P was already waiting, a bottle of hot pink paint in her hand.

"Oh this is perfect!" I laughed as I poured the paint on the inside of his helmet. The next time Lando put on the helmet, the paint would get all in his hair and make it go pink.