Sara stayed true to her word. Over the course of the three races leading up to the Japanese Grand Prix, she forced herself to watch the races until she finally thought it to be safe to join Carlos on the track again.
Japan had always been a place Sara had wanted to go and now she had the opportunity, she wasn't going to miss out on it. Besides, if she wouldn't be ready to be on track, she could always go back to the hotel and watch it from there like she had done the past times back home.
"This bloody weather." Sara pulled the sleeves of her sweater further over her hands. "I hate this place." Carlos laughed as he pulled Sara against his chest. "I hate this weather." The Japanese weather was far from ideal with a typhoon coming their way.
"It's the perfect kind of weather to stay in, however." Sara snuggled further into Carlos' chest as he pulled the covers up even more.
"Is the thermostat broken or something?" Sara's teeth started to clatter. "It is bloody cold in here." They remained in bed for an hour more until Carlos' phone rang.
"Hey, Lando, what is up?" Carlos laughed. "No, Lando, don't even think about it." Sara sighed, she could hear Lando's voice through the phone but she couldn't understand what he was saying. "I'll ask Sara, I'll let you know." Carlos ended the call and looked down at Sara. "Lando asked if we wanted to come down to the lobby to play some games."
"Really?" Sara pouted.
"Come on, we can't stay in bed all day."
"Yes, we can." Carlos got out of bed. "No..." Sara pouted and rolled herself deeper into the covers. "I really want to stay in."
"You need to get out Sara. It will do you good to spend a day with the drivers, seeing the other side of them like you knew Anthoine. Like you know me and Pierre. Maybe it will do you good?"
"Right now you are just trying to convince me to come with you." Sara laughed.
"Is it working?" Carlos asked hopefully.
"It seems like it is." Sara hesitantly came from under the covers. "But I am going to get dressed in two layers of clothes and I am taking a blanket."
"Sure." Carlos walked back to Sara and kissed her. "I love you." He kissed her again. "And your silly little mannerisms." Sara chuckled.
"I love you too." They got ready and walked to the lobby, where a group of drivers had already gathered as the weather outside was horrible, inside, it was warm and cosy.
Carlos told her when they left the room, that he had simply not yet turned on the thermostat, that was why it was that cold in the room. She had called him a bastard and he had simply laughed.
"Hey, guys." Carlos greeted his friends and Sara introduced herself to those she did not know yet. They sat down and Lando quickly came with the idea to play Werewolves of Millers Hollow. It was one of the very few games they could play with the number of people they had.
They played their first game and as fate had it, there was a certain joker that had the cupid card and coupled up Sara and Carlos. When the two found out, it took them a whole three seconds to realise it had been Lando who had put them together.
Conveniently, Lando was one of the last players to be eliminated by the werewolves, leaving just two villagers and two werewolves.
"Okay, so I have a theory." Sara started. Lando was a cupid, as we can see and he coupled two people up. So far, the couple hasn't been voted out yet. Now I am half of the couple and with the blatant accusations on my part to a certain werewolf, I am pretty sure that my other half is a werewolf as well so I can't be killed without killing a werewolf as well."
George started to grin.
"That's brilliant. Now, who is your partner?"
"That's the million-dollar question. Now I am not going to tell, because I'm not that much of a spoiler but it's still Lando who coupled us up." George laughed.
"I know. Never mind."
"I think I know who you are talking about." He laughed and the voting started. Because George was the major in the game, it was quickly decided that Carlos was the one who would be voted out, proving that Sara's suspicion had been right and Carlos had been a werewolf.
Then the final round came and Sara was voted out by the werewolf, leaving just George and Alex.
"I am sorry buddy but I have the major necklace." George grinned as he pointed at Alex. "Meaning you are voted out." Alex started to grumble and annoyedly turned around his card.
"I was a villager!" Sara's eyes widened.
"You were the final werewolf?!" She exclaimed, looking at George in shock. "Bloody hell, I didn't see that one coming." She laughed.
"Shall we play another round?"
"We need a tenth person. That is so much more fun." Lando said.
"Mate, we don't have a tenth person in this room," Carlos smirked. "IT's kind of hard to find a tenth player then, isn't it?"
"We can play with nine, who cares, last game was a lot of fun. Despite Sara trusting the wrong person in the end."
"Oh well, I'm sorry that I singlehandedly figured out that Carlos was a werewolf instead, mister Albon." While Alex and Sara teasingly started to make fun of each other, George had called in a tenth player.
"A tenth player. RJ!" Sara looked up, curious to see who this 'RJ' was but her heart stopped when she saw Juliette standing there. Sara watched how she got a chair and sat down at the table as far away from her as possible. Under the table, Carlos took Sara's hand and gave it a squeeze. She wasn't alone. A pleasant conversation started with Daniel about his wife and daughter but Sara didn't apprehend any of it, she was too engrossed in her own thoughts.
When was the last time she and Sara had been sitting at the same table?
When was the last time three of them had been together of which Juliette was one?
They were just missing Anthoine...
"Let's just toss the cards around shall we?" Lando asked and Carlos laughed yet again. He truly was a muppet.
"I don't think throwing them is such a good idea," George said. "Seeing we are not allowed to see what is under someone else's card." Lando rolled his eyes and started handing out the cards. Sara sneakily peeked under hers and had to hide her smirk. She was a werewolf. The first night of the game came along and Sara opened her eyes to see who the other werewolf was. For the sake of the game, they had decided to have a werewolf less this time to see how that would go.
Sara had to keep herself from gasping – and therefore giving herself away – when she saw who the other werewolf was: Juliette. Sara's heart raced as she watched the game unfold but the longer they played, the more comfortable she got. They were a good team still as they eventually won the game both of them still in it.
"Okay, but how did we not suspect either of you?"
"Probably because Sara still went around with her silly accusations that seemed legit enough just like the last game and we didn't know how RJ played."
"Alrighty, I'm going to get a croissant because they have been staring at me ever since I entered this room." Sara flinched at Lando's pronunciation of croissant. Luckily, Sara wasn't the only one and Juliette corrected him. It only made Lando seeing the fun in it, suddenly realising how many French-speaking people there were in the room.
"Repeat after me, Lando." Sara grinned, adding some fuel to the fire. "Krwa..."
"Krwa."
"...san."
"San."
"Krawsan." Despite better judgement, Sara still hoped that Lando would slip up and say it right.
"Cresent." She was wrong, making Sara sigh.
"Speaks French like a Spanish cow." She annoyedly mumbled.
"What?" Carlos asked, looking at his girlfriend with a frown on his face.
"Speaks French like a Spanish cow." Sara repeated, not aware of what she was doing 'wrong."
"Sara," Charles laughed. "it is 'parler français comme une vache espagnole'." Sara nodded, fully aware that was the saying. "Only use this in French, don't translate it to English." Charles had switched to French, automatically having Sara doing the same.
"Oh." She said and burst out into laughter. On the other side of the table, Juliette was losing it and Pierre didn't seem to be far behind. "Oh, this is bad. See this is why I am not made for English, I proved my point yet again." Sara said, reminding Juliette and Pierre of the statement she used to make over and over again in the past.
"You are not the only one, trust me." Pierre wheezed.
"The things I have translated wrongly," Charles smirked.
"I said with full confidence 'those are not your onions' instead of 'that is none of your business.'" Juliette added and put up her thumb. Sara shook her head.
"Ce ne sont pas vos oignons?" Juliette nodded. "How did you do that?"
"Je ne sais pas." Charles, Pierre, Juliette and Sara had been speaking in French the entire time, confusing the rest of the group present.
"You have got to explain this one to me," Carlos said to Sara. "Because I'm confused."
"In French, we say 'parler français comme une vache espagnole' when someone speaks French poorly, which directly translates to 'to speak French like a Spanish cow'." Juliette and Pierre started to laugh again. "You both need to stop, I swear..."
"It's just too beautiful."
"It makes sense in French, but in English, it is so weird," Pierre added.
"To speak French like a Spanish cow... right." Carlos raised his eyebrows.
"Which gives me the confirmation French is a weird language," Alex said and that ended the discussion. They started a new game, this time with twenty players and Juliette became the moderator. Sara was quickly voted out of the game that time, giving her some time to process what had just happened.
It was like old times. There was no tension in the air but that possibly had something to do with the connection between Pierre and Juliette. The latter seemed a lot more at ease when she was with Pierre. It raised eyebrows all around the table, especially when they said no to being in a relationship. Juliette had looked down, changing her behaviour from the confident lady she had been just a minute ago. Something was definitely going on there and she needed to have a good conversation with Pierre.