Religiously ° Charles Leclerc

two

Race weekends were always stressful.

It had been so long that Val had forgotten just how stressful they were plus this was so much worse for her this time since it was the first time that she would be stepping foot in a Paddock in two years.

They had just arrived at the track and Malina was picking up their paddock passes from the ticket people, Val felt like she was going to be sick but tried to seem as normal as possible for Malina, this meant a lot to her best friend and she was not going to be the one to ruin the experience for the younger brunette... Val knew better than anyone that watching your first race from a team garage was a completely different experience than just watching it from the grandstands. Malina rejoined her handing the pass to Val who with shaky hands placed it around her neck as they approached the place where they scanned the passes.

Malina furrowed her brow giving her rather pale best friend a concerned look, "are you okay Val?"

She tried to give the best smile that she could manage, but it was more of a grimace "Yeah Lina, it's fine, I'm fine." which was far from the truth she was not fine and still felt like she was going to be sick, but was trying to push through it. 

The younger girl did not look like she believed her but knew better than to push it. She just linked her arm through Val's as they walked through the Paddock, Val through her nerves got the biggest feelings of nostalgia as she looked around it made her realize that she honestly had missed this, they had just walked past the Red Bull garage which was where a certain former Australian Red Bull driver was talking to Max as they had a bit of time before fp1.

The man had glimpsed her at first and then did a double take once he realized he was really seeing her there, "I'll be back." he said to Max who looked confused at the suddenness as the Aussie driver practically sprinted out of the garage, he had to be 100 percent sure that it was her. "Well, well, well, look who we have here," he said, grabbing her attention.

Val blew out a breath as she stopped forcing Malina to stop as well since their arms were still linked before she unlinked her arm from her best friend and turned around, "Valentina Rossi."

Malina had a confused look on her face as she realized who had called out to them, which increased at the small smile she noticed on Val's face, as she looked at the Australian driver "Danny Ric... you'd have been so embarrassed had that not actually been me."

There was a wide smile on his face as he laughed at her response, "You know I just barely caught a glimpse as I was talking to Max and had to double-take and then confirm that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me..." he pulled the girl into a hug which she returned... She had missed them the friends that she had made through her ex but it was too painful of a reminder of what happened to keep in touch with them except for Lewis, who she was the closest to out of them all.

They pulled away from the hug and he was still smiling widely at the girl, "Never thought I'd see the day, that Valentina Rossi, would grace us with her presence in the Paddock once again," Val rolled her eyes and flipped the Aussie driver off, for his dramatics but you could tell there wasn't any heat or malice behind it. "So what's brought you back to us V?"

Val blew out a breath, "my best friend Malina, who was invited by McLaren and allowed a plus one. Lina guilted me into coming with her, so here we are... it's weird being here and I constantly feel like I'm gonna hurl, have since we walked through the gate, it's going to be a long fucking weekend, and I'll probably end up hiding in the McLaren garage the whole time or the Mercedes garage one of the two."

Malina was standing beside Val looking confused as hell about everything that just happened. She had no clue that her best friend had ever been to a race before.