DAISIES-Lando Norris

[ 14 ]

Qualifying went horribly wrong, at least that's what's she thought. She qualified p7 after receiving a three place grid penalty after she messed up the qualy laps of various drivers due to her spinning around onto the gravel. In her defense, her left hand was still killing her, her knuckles looked purple and swollen to the point her hand looked broken. It probably was, but Taylor was too stubborn and mostly ashamed of admiting out loud she broke her hand because she happened to hit a wall. Nothing a few painkillers wouldn't help with the pain, but it still lowered her performance.

Taylor grumpily walked out of the FIA motorhome, she just had a meeting with the stewards after her incident. She came up with the excuse that something happened with the steering wheel that caused her to spin and go out to the gravel. She couldn't understand why make a big deal out of something so insignificant like that, it's not like any other driver crashed because of her or worse, die.

From what Stella was telling her, social media was full on speaking about that incident. Thankfully they were all defending her, saying how it was just a rookie mistake and that the punishment shouldn't be so harsh. But it is what it is and Taylor had to live with it.

"I just don't get it," Stella angrily said as they walked out of the media pen. She was scrolling through her phone, most likely reading comments online. "Some people are saying they were so harsh on you because you are a girl"

This boiled Taylor's blood. A frown came to her face as she shook her head, that couldn't be it. Yes sometimes she felt discriminated because she was a woman but not to the point of thinking they were trying to purposely mess up her qualifying. "That doesn't make sense."

Stella kept on talking to her but Taylor was long lost in staring at Lando. He was stading outside of the McLaren facility taking pictures with some fans. Taylor couldn't help herself but smile as well when she saw he was genuinely smiling at them as they spoke, he looked so happy Taylor felt warm inside when she knew he was content that day.

"Are you even listening to me?" Stella and Taylor stopped walking and were standing in the middle of the paddock, Stella seemed annoyed at her as for the past five minutes Taylor hasn't been paying attention to anything she said.

"Just go talk to him. I give you ten minutes."

Taylor joyfully nodded and went towards Lando, happy she was allowed to speak to him at least for a few minutes.

When Lando saw her approaching, an equally bright smile came to his face, he quickly wiped it off remembering he couldn't like her, he has a girlfriend.

"Hi, congrats on getting pole position" said Taylor once she was close enough.

"Thank you" shyly replied Lando, "it's a shame you were handed a penalty."

"Yeah, the sport as a whole is unfair. Specially for me" she murmured the last part more to herself. Unfortunately Lando heard and he offered a kind smile.

"Don't say that, I'm sure everybody loves you."

Taylor grinned at him, although not believing his words. There seemed to be something different about him, physically she meant. And after analyzing his face she could spot a few bruises on it, most likely hidden away with makeup, which definitely was weird.

Taylor worried about it moved closer to him, her hands involuntarily moving towards his face. Lando flinched away when he saw her hands moving towards him, embarrassment written on his face as he anxiously ran a hand through his hair.