Cloud 9 | Lando Norris

6

Luna Castelli

I made my way to the shops after FP1 and 2. Both went alright, P6 and P7. I hoped Quali would be close to those results tomorrow. I had this almost...curse. If something didn't start off well, it would stay that way. Even in school, if my first grade of the school year wasn't good, neither would my upcoming. Maybe it was my lack of study, though. I was absolutely obsessed with cars. I spent time building race tracks in our backyard in my free time instead of studying. It filled me with joy, so I just decided to keep doing what made me happy. Best choice. I honestly didn't know how I got through school. But every time I passed the test without studying, I kept doing the same thing all over again. As long as i wasn't failing, i wasn't willing to study. I was a little bit of a rebel growing up, but ever since I moved to my own place, I became responsible. I guess it just came naturally.

I walked over to the photo printer at the shop and printed some Polaroid sized photos for Alex's present. Most of them were Lily and I on a date, and him third-wheeling us. My favorite was the one that we took in Miami last year. Behind us were palm trees and a gorgeous sunset. We were doing the iconic Charlie's angels pose where Lily and I were back to back, making guns with our hands, and in the middle was Alex, also making a gun with his hands. It was so ridiculous and unserious, but I loved it.

I then wanted to get Lily a separate present, but I didn't find anything in the store that screamed Lily. There was a drugstore nearby that sold Lily's favorite candy. It was very specificly from that drugstore and not any other one. She liked the chocolate covered watermelon popsicle bites, but only the ones that were covered in dark chocolate. The others weren't an option.  I grabbed a big box of them and paid for them at the cash register. The cashier recognized me and had a small talk with me before handing me a gift bag for free. Australians were some of the nicest people.

After getting in my car, I thought about it for a second. Should I text Charles? He wasn't the one to blame, i knew. Nothing was confirmed, but it didn't need to be. I knew Charles didn't do it. You could slice my head off if I was wrong. I pulled out my phone and started texting.

Luna: Hey. I'm sorry. Can I call if you're free?

After clicking send, I turned my phone off and exhaled. I shouldn't have made such a big scene. And neither should Lando have. I didn't even know what was wrong and still overreacted. His reaction was completely fine. And I knew Charles wasn't allowed to tell me because of protecting me, but because Ferrari was behind some part of this, if not all of it.

My phone started ringing. I didn't think twice before answering.

"Hi." I spoke carefully and almost in a whisper.

"Hey, has she told you?" My eyes turned wide as plates as soon as Charles spoke his question.

"Yeah, well, no, not really. Lando did. But I don't want to hear you say sorry."

"I- don- want to hu- I- he-" he was stuttering, I knew exactly why. He was scared, but what for? That I didn't know.

"Charles. Please just listen. I know you didn't leak those photos. You know very well who that is. Is your team behind this?"

"No. Lu, I don't know wha-"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Charles. We'll have a meeting today anyway, and I am prepared to say everything I know."

"Please, Lu, don't. I am begging you. I'm gonna lose my seat. Yes, Ferrari is behind those photos, even though they know they're old and fake. And yes, it was all planned to get money back from Mclaren and Red Bull. They haven't been leaked to the public, but they have been to the brands. I couldn't do anything about it no matter how hard I tried to tell them that it's a bad idea." He spoke those words out like he was holding them in for days, which he kind of did, but not for that long.