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RACE WEEKENDS WERE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE TESTING. It involved so much more work than what Elsie Pearce is used to. Last year, she only had to do a few runs on the simulator, mainly, as well as going on runs in the mornings right when she woke up in order to actually wake up and do some lighter workouts in the gym. Now? She has to strictly follow the healthy diet she didn't give a fuck about on the weeks they had breaks between races, have a smoothie and some toast or a bowl of fruit for breakfast, and then go through her exercise routine with her trainer at the gym—do a mix of the treadmill, weights, the weighted jump rope, and some reaction training that she never passes up. It's more vigorous than before, and she's working up more of a sweat than normal by the time they're done and her body ached.
"Fuck," she curses, taking a seat on the bench and wiping her face with a towel. Her trainer, Thomas, hands her her water bottle. "Why is it so much work now?"
"Because it's Formula One?" Thomas says, bewildered as he stares at the girl who looks like she's about to pass out. "Jesus Christ, Elsie, I'm sorry. Do you need to lie down or something? I can get—"
"No, I'm fine." She takes several sips of water before handing the bottle back to him. "I just haven't raced properly since just before Danny came back, and this routine is different, so I'm not exactly used to it."
"Right," he says quietly in realization, nodding slowly. "Okay, why don't we get your stuff packed up and we can head back to the hotel. I think resting will do you some good, yeah?"
"Yeah, okay, we can do that," Elsie nods and gets up from where she's sitting on the bench, going to help Thomas collect all her things and put them back into the gym bag.
✧ ✧ ✧
Elsie hates elevators.
Well, really, she just hates being in them with other people. She's fine being in them by herself, but it's awkward having to share that space with a complete stranger and sit in even more awkward silence as it ascends or descends to different floors at the request of the people wanting to use it.
The hotel is housing the VCARB team, as well as Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Williams for the week. The rest of the teams are at a complete different hotel just a few blocks away. Her room at the hotel in Bahrain, that she's sharing with Yuki is on the fifth floor (she would've preferred if it was on a lower floor, like the third floor).
She presses the button to take her up, and while she waits, she starts pacing in front of the two elevator doors. It isn't very late out right now, but when Thomas had brought her back to the hotel, there had been enough people to make it seem like the hotel would be busy tonight. And she's sure the elevator is going to take forever and a day to descend.
