driving and detriment; norris

. 22 spa sabotage

Traitor
Olivia Rodrigo

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Trigger warning for this chapter: mention of rape.
If you are not comfortable with this topic, please stop reading after the stars ***

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As soon as the cars roll back into the garage, the whole team sets to work. The strategists spring into action, ready to go over the qualifying and what went wrong. The mechanics hover over the cars, doing whatever mechanics do when parc fermé is in action. And the marketing team gets ready to do some damage control. 

Mark, the head of their team, calls everyone in for an emergency meeting. The PR managers get clear instructions on what not to let the boys say in interviews. And the social media departments get a clear instruction too: post as much funny and light content as they can, to distract the fans.

Everyone piles out of the room, and Meadow runs into Max as she does. 

"Hey, I'm sorry for your qualifying." she says softly.

The Dutchman shrugs in response. "No need to be sorry, it's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault really." But his comment doesn't succeed in fading the apologetic look from her face. 

He gets hurried away by his trainer, and it reminds Meadow of the task at hand. She'll have to find Olive and Ruby to discuss their strategy. Letting her eyes roam around the garage, she sees no sight of them. They were at the meeting just now, so they can't be too far away.

With a defeated sigh, she sends a quick message to their group chat. The last text thread is a painful reminder of the wig in their friendship. 

Obviously, there's no response. 

If these two would actually care about their job, it would make her work a lot easier. They have so much to do, and this just keeps them from starting. She sets of to their hospitality suite, with a false hope that they'll be there, already behind their laptops. 

Of course, the quick trip learns her that her hope was, in fact, false. The two are nowhere to be seen, and the staff hasn't seen them either. This broadens her search grounds, and they could be anywhere, really. 

With a loud sigh, she leaves the building again, on her way to the main hospitality suite. Hopefully they're there, sipping coffee or whatever. Thankfully, the paddock isn't too busy right now, most people are in the stands or on the balconies that they paid thousands of dollars for, watching the last session of qualifying. 

Walking in, it only takes one glance to see that the two aren't there. The feeling of defeat settles in, and she walks back to their own building. It is just so frustrating, and to be honest it makes her mad. The two of them have no right to treat her like this, but okay, not everyone can like everyone. But to treat the team like this? Unacceptable.

All worked up, she falls into a chair in their seating area. If Olive and Ruby don't want to cooperate, she'll make all the decisions herself. Not before shooting a quick text to her supervisor, though.

Somewhere during the damage control on her laptop, she catches a glimp of the rest of the session on one of the tvs. Apperently, Charles got pole position for tomorow. If anyone other than their own drivers deserved it, it would probably be him, Meadow thinks.

The rest of the saturday passes in a blur of meetings, a lot of posts, a very short dinner break, and no further sight of Olive and Ruby anymore.

Sunday morning hurries along the same way, and before they know it, it is time for lights out.