Switched | Sebastian Vettel

Chapter 16 | Some joking and begging

Walking through the paddock made me surprisingly smile. The third practice was just done and with all the mechanics we were on our way to go eat our lunch. Brad and I sat down first with our food, which meant that we had a few minutes to talk about Maureen. 
'How was she this morning?' Brad asked me. He already had asked me about last night and I had told him everything that he needed to know. 
'Not like the usual Maureen. She had puffy eyes and looked like she hadn't slept for days. I heard her get up at least seven times at night. But she's going to some of her friends today and comes back tomorrow,' I told him. 
'She's going to do the race?' he asked confused. I shrugged.
'I don't know. We will see,' In fact, I knew she wasn't going to be able to work on race day. Erin, her psychologist had texted her back this morning when I had her phone and she would take some time for her on Sunday in the afternoon, right when the race started. 
'I hope she gets better. I hate seeing Maureen like this,' Brad said before Adrien and Jacob joined our table. 
'Finally, the food I've been craving for- for the past hour!' Jacob said while sitting down. I smiled at him. The boys had started a conversation about a crash that happened once in a race of Nascar last year. I was trying to follow it, but because a certain text from my sister got my attention I couldn't follow what the boys actually were talking about. I give up on trying to keep up with them and decided to open the message instead. I got surprised by a picture of a cat. A grey British shorthair to be precise. A long 'Ooh' escaped out of my mind as I made the picture biggeApparentlytly this was the cat Thomas was talking about when we had that conversation in the car as Maureen had texted me with a printscreen of the conversation between Thomas and Maureen on my phone. I opened the photo of the cat again.  He had a round face and looked abselutely adorable. 

'What's so ooh?' Brad asked trying to grab my phone. I pulled it away before he could grab it and grinned at him. 

'Wouldn't you like to know, hmm?' I asked playfully as I gave the picture another look, just to let Brad think it was something way different. 
'Oh, now I need to know,'  Brad laughed and stood up. I followed his lead and stood also up. 'Give me that phone!'

'Oh, hell no!' I laughed and when he started to run towards me around the table, I run around too but the other way so he couldn't catch me. I couldn't help but keep laughing as he most likely was thinking the picture wasn't a cat but something else, or somebody else. 
'You can't just suspiciously ooh on us and don't show us what's there to ooh!' Brad said while running after me. I couldn't help myself when I saw Daniel walking in his racesuit and decided to use him as a shield while the giggles started to come out of my mouth. 
'What's happening?' Daniel asked confused, but still laughed when Brad had followed me. I had my hands on Daniel's shoulder while I stood in front of him and Brad behind him. 
'Don't let him get to me,' I told Daniel without any other information. I saw Brad grin at me from behind Daniel. He pretended a few times to get around Daniel which only made me shake Daniel's shoulder. Daniel didn't seem to mind though. His eyes were concentrated on me with his famously smile as Maureen it once had called it. 

'Can someone explain?' Daniel asked again.
'She's hiding a picture from all of us!' Brad said, making no efford to be not as loud as he was right now. I rolled my eyes at Daniel.
'What kind of picture?' Daniel had asked as he gave me a curious look. He wiggled his eyebrows at me.
'We don't know. It could be anything,' Brad said back to him.
'I kind of want to see it too now,' Daniel said and before I knew it he pulled me with his arm close to his waist as his other hand took my phone out of my pocket. My mouth formed a "O" as I looked at him like he was betraying me. 'Unlock it for me,' Daniel said as he pointed the phone at me. I pressed my lips together as I tried to hide my smile. 

'Well, I guess there is no way back,' I faked a sigh. 
'No, there isn't,' Daniel grinned as he watch me unlock Maureen's phone. The picture of the cat showed up again. I looked closely at Daniel's reaction as he pulled the phone back at him. He started to laugh as soon as he saw the picture and looked back at me. His eyebrows started to raise as he nodded slowly his head, like he was impressed.
'That's.... wow, yeah,' 

'What?!' Brad asked, trying to get a look on the phone, but Daniel pushed the phone to his chest. 'Oh come on!'
'I don't think you can handle this Brad,' Daniel played along, giving me a wink while looking at Brad with a serious face. 
'Oh yeah, that's cute. You two trying to be partners in crime,' Brad said rolling his eyes. He actually looked pretty annoyed, so I took the phone back from Daniel and decided to share the cute picture of the cat. He had a big smile on his face when I gave him the phone, but that changed immediately into a disappointed one.
'What?' I asked him. 'You don't think he's cute?'
'Is this really the picture I've been chasing you around for?' he asked with a pout, trying to look sad.
'Yeah mate,' Daniel answered for me as he patted his shoulder. 'But whose cat is it?'
I didn't know why, but that question made me make a decision.
'It's gonna be my sister's cat,' I told them with a big smile. Brad gave me my phone back. I looked back at the picture and smiled. He was in need to get a new loving home, and I could give him that. So what would be the reason to not get him? I was getting myself a cat.

---

Qualifying made me feel just like qualifying in Austria. I got excited, wanting to perform at my best and hoping the car and our driver would do the same. But unfortunately, the team had a different plan for me... or Maureen I mean. In practise three I was allowed to fix some small parts where small hands were in need, but apperently in qualifying, I wasn't even allowed to touch the car. Saying that I -Maureen- wasn't ready to be in such pressure after Friday. I had given Rocky, who told me that news, an unbelievable look. I felt offended. Not for me, but for Maureen. Okay, maybe Maureen wasn't just ready for this pressure, but I looked fine. A little bit of trust was appreciated, even if they didn't know I wasn't Maureen.
'Rocky, I'm fine. See?' I once again told Rocky just when Q1 had ended. 
'Maureen, we already spoke about this. No is no.' Rocky said while I followed him. 
'But fine is also, fine. I'm ready to work my butt off, why can't you let me?' I tried again. Rocky suddenly stopped walking when we stood next to Sebastian who just got outside for just a minute before he had to get back in for Q2. I almost crushed into Rocky, but found myself stop right before that could happen. He looked back at me and sighed. 

'Will you ever shut up about this?' he asked me, showing me how annoyed he was with me. 
'Not until you let me back to work. Practise three went great. You saw that right?'
'Yes, I saw. And you told me that about five times right now.' Rocky said, opening some papers and gave it to Sebastian, who tried to follow the discussion between the two of us with an amused smile. 'If I tell you that you're allowed to do the race, will that get you off of my back?'

'No,' I said immediately, making Rocky sigh even harder. He probably didn't know what to deal with me, and that's exactly what I wanted to get out of this. Between now and five minutes I expect him to break and just let me do Maureen's job. 'I came to work today, so I want to do my job. All of it, not just a small piece of it,'
'Can you help me?' Rocky asked Sebastian, who grinned at the two of us. 

'You know, I have to get back in to the car. But if you really want my opinion. She looks driven to go back to work and I trust that enough.' Before Sebastian got into his car he winked at me, making me grin and look back at Rocky. 

'Still not going to happen, and if I knew you were such a pain in the ass I would've banned you for today,' Rocky said and walked away from me. 

'Rocky!' I called for him, not believing that he wasn't even giving me a chance to prove myself. I sighed deep and sat back down on the chair that they put down for me. I put my arms over each other as I looked annoyed into the garage. This wasn't fair. 

A/N: I'm not going to spoil anything for the next few chapters, I'm just letting you know things are happening (;