"Anna" Sue catches up with me on the way to the class room. "Good morning" I yawn and cover my mouth with my hand. Her red hair flows down her back in beautiful waves. "I didn't thought you would be here" she smirks and walks past me through the entrancehall. "I wouldn't dare to miss Mrs. Stanleys lecture,but I am afraid I will fall asleep." "When did you come back last night?" "Landed in Nizza at 11 but till I was at home it was long past midnight." I look down at my phone, its now 8:55 and I was awake for nearly 2 hours. It was truly a short night. "At least you had a fun weekend in Holland no?" "Yeah" I yawn but my eyes sparkle still hyped from the race feeling. She laughs and opens the door to the room. We try to be quieter around the others when we settle down on our chairs next to each other. "How was your weekend?" I ask her and grab my laptop out of my bag to start it. The first class would be with Miss Stanley and she surely wants us to be prepared. "I worked pretty much. So many of my clients are these wanna be models, who want to find a rich boyfriend here. It's exhausting but to be fair, it's good money" Sue winks and opens up her blog and places markers and pens on the desk. "By the way you did a good job on the weekend. Content wise it was a huge improvement." I grin at her. A boy with dark curles comes up to my desk. "Excuse me Anna." I look up at him. Never before I had changed words with him. "Yeah?" I smile at him softly. Just when he opens his mouth a girl with a light brown ponytail pushes him out of the way slightly and puts down her hands on my desk. My eyebrows jump up in the air. What the fuck?! She looks at me with a mean smirk on her face. Her golden eyes lay down on mine but something in them is just evil. The long ponytail is resting on her shoulder and behind her I see a group of four more girls looking over to us giggling. In my stomach sets in a uncomfortable feeling. This is definitely not good. "So little Anna tell me. How is it to fuck half of the formula one grid? What crazy shit are you pulling off for them?" she smirks at my face. I lost all control of it. Exposed infront of all the class makes me feel sick. It's deadly quiet in the room and all eyes lay on us, they are needy for this drama. I hear the blood rush loudly in my ears. "With who are you hooking up after class? Daddy Ricciardo or maybe Verstappen himself? Nobody seems to be safe from your little sluty fingers" she continues. "Don't forget the Norris dude" a girl of the group behind her giggles. If someone didn't know how I spend most of my weekends, now they certainly do. My heart races and the panic takes over my body. The girl infront of me stares down at me with a victorious smile on her face. "Sit down everyone" Mrs Stanley enters the room and let her eyes flow over her students. When her eyes stop at me I stare back at her, I wonder if she saw the horror in my eyes. "It's not over Anna. I will destroy you." the brunette walks over to her table not without whispering this threat to my face. "Mister Daniels, please find a seat" The strong voice of the teacher fills the room again. "May I? " the soft voice of the curlyhead is close to me so I turn towards him and he points to the chair to my right. "Su.. Sure" I stutter. It's the first thing I can say after what went down. A swift touch on my knee let's my eyes wonder to my left. Sue's eyes are filled with worry. "Are you OK?" she mouths. I shake my head. The panic in my chest is still raising. All I can feel is a panic attack coming over my body. I don't know how long I sit there and just stare in the air. Surely Mrs Stanley talks about a lot of important stuff but I am to busy controlling my breath right now. Frequently different pairs of eyes land on me. Some of them are filled with pity some of them with disgust or malicious joy. In my head billions of thoughts run a marathon. "Mrs. Winter? What is in your opinion the strongest marketing tool?" My eyes flick up when hearing my name. The waterblue eyes of the professor seems to look to the bottom of my soul, some sort of comfort lay in them. I clear my throat and try to get my shit together real fast. My voice shakes a little when I answer the question "Emotions Ma'am. Emotions are the strongest Marketing tool, because everyone can relate to them. We all want to be healthy and happy, all humans want to find love. So with telling stories, addressing our emotions a brand can be kept in the memories or even be motivated to by a product." A sight smile appears on the firm woman's face." Very well. Thank you Mrs Winter" She nods at me. Giggling from the back of the room appears which attracts the attention of our professor, her eyes flinch to the cause. "Mrs. Duune, do you have any criticism of what Mrs Winter says otherwise I would suggest you keep quiet." I don't even have to take a look at the person which is making fun of my answer or me. It's the girl with the brown ponytail which is now speaking up. I don't follow the conversation further. There is a sharp pain in my chest. I feel how my hands get shaky and my heart race fastens up. The boy slips a piece of paper on my desk.
Breath in 4s, hold it 4s breath out 8s.
My eyes must be filled with panic when I look over to him. He gives me a shy nood, which makes his curles fall a little in his eyes. I close mine and start to breath in for four seconds. When my lungs are filled with oxygen I hold it for another four seconds. Then I open my eyes and breath out and lot the air out of my lungs for 8 seconds. I repeat this procedure until I feel how my body calms down. But I need to keep going for a while before I can fully concentrate on the topic of the lecture. Soon after it's coming already to an end. "Thank you for your time. I have a little announcement before you go. This might be bad news to you but please consider it as a safety measure. This will be your last class on campus for at least this year. From now on until the situation is safer again your lectures will be online. This starts right now so if you have anymore lectures today they will be virtually. You should find all the informations on you timetable on the website. But please don't stop working hard, I still search for the best of you to be tutored by me. Thank you. " She closes her laptop and packs her things. It seems like something is bothering her then she is looking up again." Mrs Winter, please stay after class." My heart sinks and my eyes search for help around the room and only find Sue's." Don't worry you will be fine" she strokes my arm softly. "I will wait outside" She winks with a comforting smile and walks out with actually everyone. The group of mean girls leave without even bothering to look at me, which I consider a blessing. With my bag over my shoulder I head over to Mrs Stanley, who sat down at her desk. "Please" she points at the chair on the opposite of the table. I sit down messaging my hands nervously. Her eyes lay softly on me. "Alright Mrs Winters" she starts but I interrupt. "Anna please ma'am." She smiles softly and continues. "Alright Anna, as you might know I am responsible for this course as the head of it. It's been brought to my attention that you actually have some well-known friends. And you don't need to comment on anything obviously, but we have the worry that some people will transfer the rumors from the internet around you and your person to the real you. We want to protect you at all our cost. Your future here is the most important and I personally see great potential in you.So if there is something the University can do for you please don't hesitate to come forward to me." I need to swallow hard at her words. It's actually ironic that she is bringing it up right after the incident with the mean girl group." I really appreciate that Ma'am."She nods." Good. I look forward to see great things in the future from you. " she stands up with an relaxed smile. It honors me, that such a personality actually thinks good about me. I wish her a good day before heading outside where Sue is waiting alongside the boy with the thick curls. "You alright?" she pulls me close to her. I smile "Yeah it's fine." Sue points next to her. "This is Ben by the way." "Pleasure. Thanks for the advice earlier. It truly helped" He nods smirking " I struggled with anxiety in past a lot, glad I could help." The three of us start to walk out of the campus talking about the news Mrs Stanley delivered to us. When we arrive at the parking lot we look back at the building. We wouldn't see that for a while now. But I was kinda excited to not heading back there soon. The morning showed me, that I couldn't expect that the changes in my life don't effected me in the uni. Besides that I could spend more time abroad traveling with the people I really want to spend time with. A little smirk appears my face when we stand there in silence, sometimes the bad news turn out to be great news. "Shall we grab a late breakfast?" I turn to my two fellow classmates. They nod and we head to our Cafe from the first week. The place in the back is not taken so we sit down there. Ben tells us a lot about him. He is actually Irish and grew up on a little farm. His big dream is his own organic supermarket without any plastic and stuff. Back at Ireland his family has such a shop in their village but he wants to use his skill to turn it to a huge business that's why he does this training. He is rather shy but seems super nice. Sue is laughing from her heart at some of his jokes. The three of us form a great group. I take a look at my phone. Daniel should be home quiet soon so I should go as well. "Daniel is coming home soon, I should keep going" I smile and wave for the bill. "Is he your boyfriend" Ben asks. Sue and I start laughing. "No just my roommate." He nods. We actually all leave the Cafe after paying. Ben needs to go a different direction so us girls say our goodbyes. "He is sweet" Sue whispers while we slowly walking back to the parking lot, the sun is burning hot on our skin. I nod "Indeed" "I feel bad for not stepping in earlier, but I was o shocked what Bella said" So this girls name is Bella. But there is nothing pretty about her. "Don't worry. I was stunned as well" Sue strokes my arm again. "Fortunately we don't have to see them again for a few months." I nod "That's true". "Have you seen the press stuff already?" Sue whispers and my heart sinks again. What in the world possibly have I done now to drawn the attention to me again. By my face Sue assumes that I haven't and pulls her phone out. She shows me multiple pictures of me in Zandvoort. In one I hold the little Luka in my arm while the little hands of the boy are deep into Landos curles. It's actually a very sweet picture. A soft smile is on my face when I look at it, the next picture is with Daniel's arm around my shoulder in his lion cape. We both laugh ridiculously hard in that photo, it was right before the drivers parade. The last couple of pictures are from the situation with Lando. His hands carefully opening my belt while I look down at him, I notice how intimate this moment seems. Another one shows him holding my fries while I take a bite from the stroopwaffel. It seems so genuine and good these picture. "So what are they saying" I mumble staring at the phone. "Mostly rumors of whom you actually date now" I roll my eyes. "Jesus Christ. I am tired of this" Stressed I look around, is somebody here now as well taking pictures? "Let me help you." Sue grabs my hand. "You could use a friend now more than ever. I know what I do. With my skills we turn your social media around. Let me manage you" I stare at her speechless. Actually I don't hate the idea.
When I swing open the door a breeze of nice cool air welcomes my body. Outside in the sun of the early afternoon its boiling and only the short way from the garage to the house was enough to make me break out in sweat. Monaco is definitely another level then the English summer. My eyes catch the glimpse of someone on the couch. "Daniel?" His head pops up from the pillow and I see his gorgeous smile "Hellouu shorty" Relief overcomes my body, it's so good to see him after this wild morning. I drop off my bag at the stairs to carry it upstairs later and walk over to him. He sits on his phone scrolling through stuff. "Did you had a good flight" I let myself sink down on the couch next to him pulling up my hair into a ponytail. "Yeah, just arrived here not even an hour ago. What are you even doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at uni?" He looks up from his phone and his eyes seem so calm that all the trouble in my chest disappears. "Indeed I should, but from now on it all will be online again. The numbers are too high." "So no campus?" I shake my head. "Damn that sucks" he scratches his back. "More time to annoy you tho" I put on my develish smile. He laughs. "You can't annoy me." I lean towards him and blow him in his ear. He flinches back and rubs it. "Don't do that" he laughs. The tiredness slowly overcomes my body and I give up to annoy him any further, I would have lots of time now to do so. Trying to hide my yawn from him I cover my mouth. "Good thing is, you don't need to worry to get back to lectures on Monday. You can just do them online now" he winks at me. "Very true" I am exhausted and Daniel immediately noticed it. "Lay down for a little. When is the next lecture?" "At 4:30" "Then you have two hours for a nap." I nod and place a pillow on his lap. He chuckles "Not the place where I imagined you would do your nap but that's fine. Do you want a good night story?" I know he is making fun of me and he laughs even harder when I say I want one. Instead of getting my story he places his free hand on my head and gives me gentle strokes over my hair while he does other things on his phone. Slowly I drift off to a deep sleep.
"Yes she is with me right now, but she is asleep. Can't it wait?" The sound of Daniel's voice wakes me up, I still lay on his lap. "Oh wait she is awake. Anna it's Charlotte on the phone. She wants to discuss something with us" I nod and while he puts her on speaker I rub the sleep out of my eyes and lift my body of his. "Hey Anna. Sorry to bother you both but we kinda have situation here. We get in quite a lot requests about a statement regarding your twos personal relationship. We haven't reacted to it yet, but it's getting more and the internet is louder then ever. Daniel I know you are seeing someone else" My head flinches to him with my jaw dropped. Now I am wide awake. What is she talking about?! "Later" he mouths and I try to refocus on what Charlotte is saying. "It would be amazing if you two could clear the air, or at least if you could Anna." "Hey Charlotte, thanks for letting us know. I will discuss this matter with my manager. We will come up with a solution for sure. It would be great if McLaren wouldn't make a statement just yet. I don't want to get connected too tightly to the brand itself just because I am spending time at the others team garages as well." Now Daniel is the one looking at me in confusion."Manager?" he mouths quietly."Later" I play back the ball to him and wink. Inside of me I crack up on his hilarious face he is pulling, but what we are discussing with Charlotte is actually important. Parallel to my speaking I type a text to Sue. "Congrats you are my manager. I need to call you in a minute." "That sounds reasonable Anna. Tell us whatever you need to make it a round picture and we see how we can help." I see on my screen that my now manager send me back the flame emoji. "If I have you on the phone can we discuss the situation with Lando." "Sure, are you comfortable with Daniel being there?" I appreciate Charlottes way of handling this right now, it makes it all so much more easy. "Absolutely. Can I ask how much damage my interaction with him was?" She sights on the other end. "The pictures of you and him with the food spread quite quickly. There had been a discussion about an affair of you two. Nothing confirmed or denied by anybody. The damage is not there for Lando more likely for your person. I am sorry" I nod, I totally forgot at that moment to be careful. It was just such a great moment with him where we enjoyed our time together. It's not easy to be the interest of the public. "That's alright. Thanks Charlotte. I will call my manager now and come back to you how I will handle the situation OK?" "Thanks Anna, you are a champ. If you give Daniel the contact information from your manager we could be in contact instead of bothering you in the future." "Sounds good thanks." "Wonderful. I will be happy to hear from you. Bye" "Bye" Daniel and I say at the same time before he hangs up. "You have a manager?" he bursts out. "You have a girlfriend?" I ask back. He blushes. "OMG you are in love! " I squeek, but get serious real quick again. "And you lied to me last week" He scratches his neck. "Well no. It's nothing serious yet." "But yet you are blushing my friend" I give him a 'are you serious dude' look. "Tell me about her." "She is very beautiful. I like her a lot, but she studies in New York so it's hard to get to know her." "Does she know who you are?" He nods. "Yeah, she is connected to the race world." My eyebrows jump up and down and I lay my chin down on my knee, taking in a comfortable position to listen. By my look on my face Daniel knows I would ask further if he doesn't talk more about her volunteerly. "So her name is Heidi Berger and she is the daughter of a racedriver. We meet at the Austrian Grand Brix this year and been in contact ever since. I really like her" "Awww" is all I can say. He really sounds happy. "Why did you lie then last week?" "I didn't actually. We were just friends back then but we figured that we should try and give each other a chance. So we kinda getting to know each other better." He scratches his neck. I throw my pillow at him. "I am happy for you buddy" Daniel catches it and looks at me smiling. I see his dimples on his cheek. "Well and you stepped up your business game already?" he turns away the topic of our conversation from him to me. "Indeed. She is a friend from Uni and has already lots of experience. Doesn't hurt to have a friend by my side." I explain to him. "How come?" "There has been an incident today. It was rather disgusting so she offered to help turning around my public image." "That bad?" he looks at me with pity. I sight "Yeah its disturbing really. They exposed me in front of the class and asked with whom I am sleeping. You, Max or Lando." His face frozes into a blank canvas, the warmth in his eyes is washed away. In disbelief he shakes his head. "Unbelievable. I am so sorry about that Anna." he grabs my hand and slides with his thumb over the top of it in comfort. I get a good look at the number three on his pinky finger. It's bold and present. His touch let's my heartbeat slow down to a normal speed. I didn't recognized till now that talking about this made me anxious again. When I look up again to his eyes I am a little frightened about the look on his face. He seemed to be so incredibly angry. " I am alright. Don't worry. I won't see them for quite some time." His yaw clinches. "You don't deserve this. But let's call your friend and find out how we can procide." The number is quickly found and while I press call my hand still holds Daniel's in comfort. I immediately put Sue on speaker. "Yeah?" she picks up. "It's me. Your new client." "Anna, nice to hear from you. How can I help?" she sounds upbeat on the other side of the line but a swing of nervousness is knowledgeable. "I am here with Daniel by the way" " Hey Daniel" Sue greets my roommate. "Hello there" Daniel answers. "So the communication Manager of Lando and Daniel just called, she would like me to clear the air a bit. You know the rumors and stuff." "Right", I hear a pencil moving on paper. A little grin appears on my face, she is taking notes. "I would see it as a start of the turnaround point." "Sure thing Anna. Do you have something in your mind?" I look at Daniel but he just shrugs his shoulders. "No" "Alright, but I do. If you would post on Instagram a thing, so people could ask you questions, surely some would ask about Daniel and you or whatever. It's a good opportunity to clear the air and let the followers get to know you better." "I do like that" I admit. "That should be a good fresh start for now, but how we proceed should be discussed later on. I will call the McLaren Lady and discuss the details. Send me the number and I will be in touch with you shortly. " "You a brilliant, thanks Sue" "You are my favorite client" she laughs before hanging up. The Aussie seems satisfied "I like her. She will do you good." Quickly we both send Sue and Charlotte the numbers of each other. It doesn't even take 20 minutes before I get the thumbs up from Sue that I should do the post. Besides that I get a few instructions how to answer best, and what I should be on the lookout for. With just a black picture I post it on Instagram. "Let's wait and see. Hungry?" I clap on my knees and look at Daniel. He nods heavily. I quickly make us each a huge sandwich and a few cucumber sticks with hummus before we both sit down on the couch again to work our way through the questions. Daniel was determined to stand by my side for this. His arm rests easy behind me when I pull my phone out. And when I unlock the screen and open the app there are incredibly many questions. First I pick a few basic ones like how am I, what I am studying or if I am really Dutch, but after a few we get to the juicy part. I pick the question "Are you dating someone right now" I answer it with "Nope, happily single" The next one makes me swallow hard. "Are you in a relationship with Daniel?" I look over to him but he just nods with a sight smirk. "Go on" I look for an old picture of him and finally find one I took the evening in France when we were out together with Max for dinner. It's one of my absolute favorites. I choose it as the background for the answer. "No, but he is the best roommate ever" I show him what I typed and he nods as he approves.
I choose to do like two more before suddenly Daniel's phone goes off. "It's Zak" he whispers and signals me to be quite as he picks up. "Hey Zak... I am good cheers, how are you?" Daniel eyes lay on me while he listens to the words of the CEO of McLaren. "Indeed she is.... It's gonna be a process the start was bad but she will manage." I realize they talk about me and my heart sinks. Did I got him in trouble? My eyes fill with tears, this is the last thing I wanted to do. He grabs my hand and looks me serious in the eyes while shaking his head. I try to blink them away."She will be in Monza" Daniel talks further. "With Haas.... I don't know... I will... Alright talk to you later." The conversation ends just a few minutes after it started. "Is he mad?" I whisper looking at him with big eyes. "No... Of course not Anna." He pulls me closer to him so his arms wrap around me in a tight comforting hug. "McLaren wants to help you. Netflix will be with the team in Monza, should be a great opportunity for us. Zak says his assistant will get in contact with Haas so you can be with us this weekend. We both should get seen together in a friendship way, so don't flirt with me." he jokes and his soft giggling seem to be the cure to my tears that I were still fighting."That's impossible" I mumble into his neck. "Just try at least" We pull out of the hug smirking. Who's idea was that to put us both in a house together? Probably faith brought us here but one thing is for sure, without Daniel I would be in a very dark scary place. "Do I have to wear orange again?" "It's suits you!" he gasps out as if it's a ridiculous question. "Show me your options" he stands up and walks upstairs straight to my closet. While I walk behind him he holds up his phone. "Darlin we have legit 30 minutes before your class starts. So move your ass." I chuckle. In the closet he looks around very concentrated. "Okay so we need at least 3 outfit for the track and two cute evenings and a another one for Monday." he scratches his neck while turning around. I lean in the door looking helpless. "Monday?" "Yeah?!?" he looks at me kinda enjoyed. "It's your birthday Anna. We will spend it in Monza since all your Uni stuff is online. I will plan something" "Please no jerski trip" I beg thinking back to our day in Monaco earlier this year. He just smirks and searches through me clothes further. "Should I wear like a minty thing one day? You know for the support for you? It's your color no? " "Yes Anna" he points fingerpistols at me. "Very good." As I frightened this 'fitting' took way longer then the 30 minutes so while my poor professor was preaching his soul out about business strategies and I am trying to take notes, Daniel comes in from time to time to let me try on new outfits. He absolutely blossomed in that role. Just over an hour later we had all the important outfits together. He even gave me some merch of his, so I could wear it for the flight and travel. Finally we are all set. While he finally headed out to meet his trainer Michael for a workout I could finally pay attention to the class.
The next few days flew by quickly. Daniel traveled to Monza on Wednesday already and we got the OK from Haas. Mick wasn't to amused about my way to deal with this whole thing. I guess he just wanted to keep me protected and under his wing as I was before I started seeing Mason. Of which by the way I haven't heard of since I left for Monaco. But I wasn't determined to reach out to him, to high is the risiko that it's too soon and I would hurt him even more. With Mick on the other side I had lots of talks lately, also a few with his mum. It actually warms my heart to see them caring so much for me. But the train left the station long ago that I would ever live a quiet life for a while.
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Hello everyone! Hope you are having a great day! Did you liked it? Would be super excited to read some feedback! I am super hyped for the Monza chapter! I think you all know why hehehe xxcc