lemon and mint | Charles Leclerc

1.

"Oh, sorry. I'm really terrible with names. I cannot even name my classmates." A few giggles escaped from her mouth, and Max found them adorable. He was at the age when he finally began looking at girls. He started seeing things he didn't before. He noticed those mesmerising emerald green eyes that could hypnotise him into doing everything she'd wanted. Also, her cute yellow dress caught his eye because she looked stunning in it. She was the girl of his dreams, pretty, interested in racing and spoke Dutch. She checked every box on his list.

"That's alright. I'm Max, by the way." Oh, that Max who's doing astonishingly good. Looking at him, Pia wouldn't say he looked like a future world champion. He was a boy with chubby cheeks and a lovely cute smile that showed his dimples. She could recognise a few facial features that he inherited from his dad, but otherwise, he was much more likeable, at least for her.

"Well, you already know my name." Pia giggled. Max found that sound euphonious.

"Okay, I guess I'll see you around, Max," she said when there was silence for too long. "Oh, and good luck for the next races," she grinned at him. Before he could even respond, Pia was already walking away. Even though this conversation wasn't particularly long, it put a smile on his face. Maybe he could take her out the next time he will see her.

Pia made her way to trailers in the paddock. She used to go there whenever she needed to rest for a bit. It calmed her down because nothing was happening here. No one was looking at her. No one was stopping her in order to ask where her father was. Sometimes it was demanding to be the daughter of a manager of F1 drivers. But this time, she could hear quiet sobs, which indicated that she wasn't alone there. It took her a while to find who was the cause of this sound. It was a boy crouching in the corner because he didn't want to be seen.

He looked a bit older than her, but she didn't care, so she sat next to him. Pia was never a shy kid, pretty much the opposite, actually. She would run around a playground and make dozens of friends in a few minutes. Gianna was convinced, that Pia inherited it from Thonie. They were both chattering, confident and loved by people.

"Hey, don't cry. You'll crush 'em next time." Pia said and hugged him tightly. She could feel how he stopped breathing for a bit because he wasn't expecting something like that.

"Thanks." Pia was immediately able to say he was from France thanks to his thick accent. She was learning French at school, but she wasn't good at it. It was probably because she tended to mix French with Dutch. Her teacher was always annoyed when Pia pronounced something with a Dutch accent, causing Pia to be afraid to talk in her class despite her love of French.

"You're from France, right?" She asked him because she wanted to distract him from sad thoughts.

"From Monaco," he quickly corrected her. Almost everyone thought he was from France despite the Monegasque flag on his racing suit. He didn't even know why they were putting the flag on them when people don't notice it anyway.

"That's cool. Will you teach me a random phrase, please? I struggle with vocabulary and pronunciation," Pia asked him politely. He seemed like a nice guy. He had long brown hair falling into his face and a cute smile on his lips.

"Bon... Let me think - Mots doux." He said after a bit of thinking. He even delayed it for a little bit because he adored her enthusiasm. She looked endearing with eyes full of sparkles.

"Mots doux? What does that mean?" She asked him curiously.

"Sweet nothings." The boy smiled delightfully.

"Thank you...?" She wanted to say his name, but then she realised she didn't know it. The name on his belt said: C. Leclerc, but she didn't want to be rude and address him by his last name.

"Charles. My name is Charles," young Monegasque introduced himself.

"Charles," Pia whispered his name a couple of times. His pronunciation sounded so much better than hers.

"Thank you, Charles. I'm Pia," she said before she started to gambol back to her dad.

"Hello there, little adventurer." Anthonie greeted her with a smile on his lips and grabbed her hand before leaving the circuit together.

"We gonna see each other in Valencia, sweetheart, okay?" Pia's father said and kissed her on the head as they stood in front of their house. It was s of tradition that she used to go on F1 races in Europe with him during her summer break. "Oh, and Seb wants you to know that your bet is still on." Anthonie let out a few giggles when he thought about Pia and Seb. Seb knew her since she was a little girl because her father was his manager since 1998. He was the one who arranged a deal with the Red Bull Junior Team for him. Therefore, he got to know Thonie and later his daughter. She was like a younger sister to him. She teased him that he wouldn't win the championship, yet she was his biggest supporter.

"Ja, papa. Yeah, I know. I'm gonna lose this year tho." Pia admitted. She felt in her bones that Seb would win again. She couldn't admit to him that he'll surely win.

"You shouldn't have bet, then," he laughed off. Neither of them wanted to tell him what they bet for. Last year, Pia had to give a presentation to her classmates about Sebastian, saying he's the best driver. On the other side, the year before, Sebastian had to give Pia a copy of his trophy from China - his very first win with the Red Bull team.

"That wouldn't be fun."

A/N

Greetings to everyone. I hope you're doing great.

I'm not really good with this, but what I wanted to say is that I thank you for reading this chapter.

Sending loads of love because you deserve it ♥︎