"Hi Hannah. Here is your pass that Christian asked me to make for you. Keep it safe cause it is what grants you access to many rooms." The lady at the desk of the Red Bull head office tells me and hands me a small card. I place the card in my pocket and walk up to the meeting room Christian showed me last time.
"Ok Hannah, one last thing. We will announce at about 1 pm that you are racing for us next season. So just beware of paparazzi." One of the people at the meeting said. I nodded my head and we were dismissed. I stand up next to Max and Alex. "Coffee?" Max asks. "Yeah sure." I agree. Alex nods and we walk out the room to the cafeteria.
"Well done in Monza." Max said. "Oh thanks. You both did well too." I say and he laughs. "I came 8th." Max says disappointedly. "It's still in the points. Plus you did your best and that's all that matters." I say and he sighs. "You're right. You know I think we will be great team mates next year." He says with a smile. "Ek dink ook so." I say in Afrikaans and he laughs.
~
I walked into a coffee shop with Tayla in front of me. "So what's do you want for lunch?" Tayla asks me as I sit down at a table across from her. "I don't really know." I say and she smiles.
The waitress comes over. "Anything to drink?" She asks. "I'll have a water please." I say with a smile and Tayla looks at me funny but orders a iced coffee. "A water, really?" She asks. "Tay it's the last few races of the season. I'm on a relatively strict diet. Which means for lunch I'm getting a-" I'm cut off by my phone making a loud noise. It was a sudden and constant stream of notifications. People started to look at me funny. I pick up my phone to look at it and I see thousands of notifications from Twitter and Instagram roll in. I quickly put my phone on silent before someone complains. "What was that?" Tayla asks confused. "They just announced that I'm driving for Red Bull next season," I say with a smile. Quickly going onto Instagram and Twitter and changing my bio. I repost the photos they posed and comment on their post, as I was told to do this morning by our social media team.
Ten minutes later I hear, "Uh Hannah we might have a problem." Tayla says as I turn around to face the way she was looking. Outside the coffee shop was completely surrounded by paparazzi. "Ah damn it." I mutter. "Is this what it's going to be like now. Being friends with a formula one driver?" She asks with a laugh. "Probably. How did they even find out where we were?" I ask. She looks down. "I posted a photo of you on my story and Geo-tagged the café." She says with a small smile. "Damn. Well we have to fight the sea of people now. At least you parked near to the front of the café." I say with a smile.
Eventually we find the courage to leave. Tayla walks in front of me but they won't let us past. I have billions of questions being yelled at me from every angle. "First female F1 driver this century!" "One of the youngest on the grid!" There were people all around me yelling at me, walking closer and closer to me. My breathing quickened as I try to fight my way out. "Sorry can we get out please." I say but it was too quiet over the yelling. I can't see Tayla any more which just leads me to panicking more. Everything starts to spin a little and my legs begin to feel weak.
"Oi." I hear someone yell and everyone went quiet. "Give the lady some room." I hear a familiar voice. The paparazzi part and reveal Lando standing on the sidewalk. I walk quickly to him and I climb into his open car door. He runs around and climbs into the other side before speeding off. "Thanks Lando." I say quietly as I catch my breath. "I never knew the paparazzi would be that bad." I say after a few minutes and he laughs. "They are like sharks. As soon as they smell a story they swarm you. It takes some getting used to. Especially now that your in the big leagues. It's Hannah Right? " He says with a smile. "Yup that's me." I say with a smile.
"I don't want to be rude but why did you do that? You never liked me. Why help me?" I asked and he looked confused. "Why do you say that? That I never liked you?" He enquires. "Well I just assumed because you never spoke to me when we used to race against each other. Nobody would." I say looking down. "Well if i did talk to you the other guys would laugh at me. I wanted to because I hated seeing how everyone just ignored you but I didn't want to be made fun of." He says and pulls over on the side of the road. "I'm so sorry for doing that but I hope we can be friends now. That guys in formula one are much nicer. Trust me." He says. "Yeah." I smile. "Do you want to go for a walk?" He asks and I nod my head before getting out the car.
We roam around the park for about just talking and getting to know eachother. "Wait you're joking?" I say through tears of laughter. "No I promise that actually happened." He says which makes me laugh even more. Once my laughter begins to slow down I notice he is staring at me. "What's wrong? Is there something on my face?" I question and begin to worry. "No. It's just that you look so beautiful." He says and I almost aww out loud. "Thanks. You don't look too bad yourself." I say and see him blush a little.
My phone rings. I smile at him and answer the call. "Hannah are you ok? I have been waiting at your house for 2 hours and I'm getting worried." I hear Tayla through the phone. "Yes I'm fine. I'm with Lando." I say and he smiles at the sound of his name. "Oh ok. I was worried. Text me next time ok?" She says. "Ok. Bye mom." I tease her and put the phone down.
"Was that your mom?" Lando asks confused. "No it was my friend Tayla. She is basically my mom, since I barely see mine." I say looking down. "Oh that's horrible. It must be difficult being so far away from home." He says. "It is tough but I manage. I try to go home once every year for about a week which isn't much but I'm busy, which I'm sure you understand." I say and he nods understandingly. "Well I'm always here to talk if you want to. Here let me give you my number then you can call me or text me whenever you want to." He says with a smile and I hand him my phone as I put my number in his phone.