i love you • formula one

01

third person

~***~

01/09/2004

Lyra smoothed down her knee-length yellow dress as she admired her reflection in the mirror. Her blonde hair had been curled by her mother earlier that morning and sat on her shoulders neatly. The blue bow in her hair matched the belt around her waist, adding an element of innocence despite her mischievous antics. Yellow was her favourite colour, whereas blue was Lando's, which is why she always tried to wear both. Lyra didn't enjoy the itchiness of the fabric against her tanned skin, but she enjoyed the confident feeling it gave her. She wasn't allowed to wear makeup just yet but she didn't really want to, anyway. Her gentle blue eyes stood out on their own, and her skin was still youthful because of her young age.

Her skirt bounced with her restless feet, her excitement uncontrollable. Today was a very special day for the young girl; it was her fifth birthday. It had been all she talked about since her fourth birthday so her mother was relieved that the day has finally arrived. A party was being thrown in the Evans' family garden to celebrate the momentous occasion, with all of her family and friends invited.

"Lyra! Lando is here!" Maria, Lyra's mother, called up the stairs. With an excited squeal, Lyra charged out of her room. The door slammed shut behind her and earned a noise of disapproval from her mother. The thundering sound of Lyra's feet down the wooden staircase echoed throughout the house, alerting everyone in the adjacent living room of her presence.

Lyra ran straight past her mother, ignoring her requests to slow down, and launched herself at her best friend. Lando had seen (and heard) her coming, but didn't anticipate being knocked to the floor by the petite girl. He didn't care about the pain in his arm and hugged Lyra with as much enthusiasm.

"Be careful, Lyra," her mother scolded, letting out a small sigh. "You saw Lando yesterday."

Cisca let out a small chuckle as she watched her son eventually got sick of Lyra's weight being on him and tried to escape. The young girl, despite her small frame, was quite strong, and overpowered Lando by sitting on his stomach and holding his arms down to the floor. His crisp white shirt was becoming crumpled, as was his dress shorts, because of Lyra sitting on top of him. Cisca was used to her ironing going to waste when she had a rambunctious young boy.

A grin lit up Lyra's face. "It's my birthday."

"I know," Lando wheezed. His hand fumbled behind him on the floor for the small box he had dropped when Lyra greeted him. "I chose this gift especially for you."

"Wow!" Lyra gratefully took the box from him and held it tightly. The box was only small, but looked rather sizeable in her small hands. Her mind was racing with ideas of what it could possibly be, but she wouldn't be able to find out until after lunch.

"Lyra, what do you say?" Maria prompted, her eyebrows raised in expectation for her daughter to remember her manners. Usually, Lyra was pretty good with saying 'please' and thanks you', but politeness was thrown out of the window whenever she was as excited as this.

"Thank you," Lyra said with a smile, drawing out her vowels.

"You can get off Lando now, dear."

Without missing a beat, Lyra pulled Lando up by his shoulders and wrapped her arms around him. "But I missed him!"

Maria let out an exasperated sigh. "You saw him last night!"