Wolff

Ready as I'll Ever Be

The Audi car of Nala Cameron roared out of the garage and down the pits as she prepared to do her first ever qualifying. As she went past the Mercedese garages, Nala saw Toto watching her come down towards him, a big proud smile on his face. Oh what she would give to have her fathers encouraging words come through the radio at that moment. But as the pits came to an end, she went into a fully-focused mode.

Nala could see the end of the last straight ahead of her, and she sped up, preparing for her flying lap. Coming around the corner, she went lightning fast down the first straight, and her lap time started. Nala flew around the track, meeting every apex and DRS zone. And as her lap came to an end, Alyssa's voice came through the radio.
"Amazing lap, Nala. Time was 1:31:005, great job, girl", she says, "P3 so far with Verstappen and Alonso in front", she continues.

Nala drives her car back into the pits, and she watches the other cars do their laps from the screen in front of her. As the first quali session comes to a close, she finishes 9th, and heads onto second quali. Excited, Nala cheers when she sees she finishes in the top fifteen, waving her hands around from where she was still firmly buckled into the cockpit of the car.

A couple minutes pass, and the start of second qualifying starts, meaning Nala once again drives her car into the lights of the track. She repeats what she did in her previous lap, hitting the apexes and going at a lightning fast speed. It paid off too.
"Wow, Nala, your on fire, keep it up! Lap time was 1:30:967. Your currently P7", Alyssa confirms through the radio.

With 4 minutes to go, Nala heads out yet again, doing an amazing lap and earning her P6. "Amazing, Nala! P6", Alyssa says into the radio, earning a "Thank you, Lyss", from Nala, who makes her way back to the pits.

The engineers prop the car up onto the wheely stands and push it into the garages. As Nala stares at the screen placed in front of her, she sees two faces in the corner of her sight. Jaidyn and Marley poked their head through the halo, one on each side with big bright smiles on their faces.

"Q3, baby!! Great job!", Marley cries enthusiasticly, putting his hand through to give Nala a high five.
"So proud, Nals! Your doing great. Smash them for us, ok?" Jaidyn says in her angelic voice, before blowing Nala a playful kiss and dispersing from Nalas line of view. Nala loved them both dearly, and their words made her feel one hundred times better now that they had said that. She felt like she was fully ready to go into Q3.

The last ten cars made their way onto the track for the final session of qualifying. Nala was estatic as she prepared for her flying lap, so happy that she made it this far in her first ever F1 race. And then she started.

Nala made the drive look effortless as she turned the windy corners and sped down the straights with immense speed. Her surrounding in the corners of her eyes were a blur to her, all focused on the track in front of her. She crossed the line with a great deal of speed, slowing down as she came to the first corner and starting to make her way back. She waited for the radio message from her track engineer in the mean time.

"Nala, great job, girl. P7 right now with a time of 1:30:610", Alyssa calls.
"Ok. Thanks, Lyss. I'm coming back now", Nala says.

Nala's car is rolled into the garage quickly, all the wires and tubes were connected to the sides straight away. She unbuckled the tight seatbelt and climbed her way out of the car, being met with massive hugs from Jaidyn and Marley.
"That was such a good lap!! I can't believe it!" Jaidyn says proudly with a big smile on her face.
"Agreed! You did so good! Now you just gotta beat the boys tomorrow", Marley says with a cheeky side smile.

"Thanks guys, but I really quickly need to go to the pit wall right now. I'll be back soon and we can talk as much as you want", Nala reassures as she runs off toward the pit wall, where a welcoming Alyssa and Mark sat. She was greeted with warm hugs, then told to sit down as she watched the rest of the qualifying.

In the last two minutes of qualifying, Nala went from P7 to P9. She clapped when the qualifying was finally over, proud of herself for getting so far in her first ever qualifying session.

As she went back to the hospitality, she was greeted by Ollie, who had been knocked out in the first qualifying session, receiving P18 for the start of the race.
"Nala! You did amazing!", Ollie cried, giving Nala a high five.
"Thanks Ollie. You actually did excellent as well, good job!", she replies, making Ollie smile.

When Ollie goes, making his way down the paddock, Nala bounds into the hospitality with her two friends by her side. They go into her driver room, Jaidyn and Marley sitting on the couch while Nala went through the wardrobe to find something to wear. She finally decided that she would just wear her race suit to the conferences, not worrying about getting new clothes right then.

The conferences took a while, Nala going around and answering multiple reporter's questions. A lot of them were the same.
"How does it feel to be the only female on track?"
"How did you become so successful at your age?"
"Has Formula 1 always been a dream for you?"
But one of the reporters asked, "Who was your biggest support system growing up doing racing?" Nalas words froze in her mouth for a moment. But then without thinking, she says, "my father was". Nala reprimanded herself mentally as she thought of those silly words she had said outloud. She was talking from Nala Wolff's perspective, not Nala Cameron's.
"Wow, he must be very proud. But I don't think we know who your father is Nala. Would you care to disclose that?" The nosy reporter asked. Nala shook her head quietly, knowing that everyone would eventually find out, she just didn't want it to be now.
"I actually need to go now, sorry", Nala whispers, her voice suddenly hoarse as she walked off. She left the conference space without another word, returning to the hospitality with Jaidyn quietly following behind.

"They can't know about dad. They just can't, not yet anway", Nala paces the room, when suddenly there is a knock at the room.

"Mark says you can go home now, Nala. If you want", Alyssa says from the door, and with that Nala was getting changed and walking out of the paddock in no time.

They arrive back to the hotel a short while after, the afternoon fading away to the black of night. Eventually, Nala falls asleep with her mind going a million miles an hour.

Nala threw on a white linen top and her favourite denim shorts the next morning as she hurried around, getting ready to go to the paddock. It was race day. Finally, it was race day. And Nala's stomach was twisting with butterflies.
The trio arrive to the paddock in the Audi, receiving a cheer from the crowd as they passed by. Frantically, Nala grabbed her stuff out of the car and quickly made her way to the entry with her friends following behind. Nala's heart was pumping, her anxiety levels high. She just needed this race to go well.

Jaidyn and Marley slowed her down as they got closer to the hospitality, trying to calm her down. "Deep breaths. Happy thoughts, ok?", Jaidyn reminded her, squeezing her hand comfortingly. Nala nodded as they slowly walked up the stairs to the hospitality. When they walked in, Nala was astonished. "Surprise! Happy birthday, Nala!", the crowd of people in front of her cheered. Nala had been so focused to the race that she had completely forgotten her birthday. And now that she saw what was in front of her, her expression lightened, a smile creeping onto her face.
Mark, Alyssa, Ollie, and all the engineers stood in front of her with little party hats strapped to their heads and big smiles on their faces.
"How did you know?", Nala asked Ollie, who gave her a big hug.
Ollie laughed, staring down at her as he explained. "Jaidyn told us actually. She's a great friend you have there", he says kindly, getsuring to Nalas friend standing off to the side.

Nala shuffled over to Jaidyn, wrapping her arms tightly around her as she whispered, "thank you", into Jaidyn's ear.

A big white came was bought out into the room, with everyone singing happy birthday to Nala. The cake had grey roses placed all around with a little cake replica of her car on the top tier. Nala smiled radiently as she cut the cake, giving the first slice to Jaidyn. She loved every minute of it.

A while later, it was finally time for Nala to start getting ready for her first ever Formula 1 race. She pulled up her overalls over her fireproofs, strapping on her shoes and dancing around the room on them. It was finally time, after all these years of waiting.

As she came out of the garages and into the sunset to go to the drivers parade, she spotted Toto. Her father. He smiled at her, a big bright smile. All she wanted to do was go up and hug him, to hear him say, "Happy birthday my darling girl", just like he did every year. But she couldn't. All she could do was smile back and keep walking.