"Noooo" I yelled in frustration. Charles passed me by a literal second. "You'll get him next time Amelia" Charles' dad told me as I stepped out of the go-kart.
"Good race" Charles said and shook my hand. He beat me every.single.time and I was actually close for the first time ever.
"Kids there's dinner!" My mom yelled from the apartment. "Last one there is a loser!" Charles shouted sprinting in front of me. I was not going to lose again. I was absolutely sprinting for my life. "Amelia!" My mom yelled at me as I almost crashed into 3 year old Arthur.
But I didn't care, I could not be a loser again. And then I saw my opportunity. We were running in my apartment so I knew a shortcut. When I made it to the dinner table and didn't see a Charles in sight I immediately celebrated. "Charles is the loser, Charles is the loser" I sang while having the biggest smile on my lips.
But then I looked to my right and saw a crying Charles. He had tripped over one of his toy cars and hurt his knee. His mom was comforting him while his dad was checking his knee. "Amelia" My mom said with a dead serious look. "Give this to Charles and apologize" She said.
My mom always told me that I had to treat the Leclerc family with respect, 'because usually families like theirs didn't spend time with a family like ours'. At 5 years old I of course didn't understand what that meant, but my mom still took it very seriously. "For what?" I asked her. "Amelia." My mom said with an even stricter voice now giving me THE look. "Ugh" I grunted. I took the bandaid from my moms hand and went over to Charles. "I'm sorry Charles, here's a bandaid for your knee" I said while Charles still sobbed. My mom lightly kicked my foot to get me to say more. I let out a loud sigh. "And you're not a loser" I mumbled finally giving in. "That's very sweet of you Amelia, now Charles what do we say?" His dad asked Charles. "Thank you Amelia" He said while sniffling.
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That year was for sure one of the best years of my whole life. Charles and his family constantly came to my family's track, which meant me and Charles raced almost every single day. We pushed each other to whole new levels.
But we were still good friends of the track. I looked up to Charles a lot since he's one year older then me. I remember asking him questions about school every other second, but he answered them all.
I remember one special day in june. My mom and dad had to work late so I got to spend the evening at the Leclerc's house. Back then it was the best day of my life. I wouldn't say my family is poor but when I stepped into the house my 5 year old self was completely shocked. Me and Charles played with his toys the whole evening and we had an amazing dinner.
There's one specific memory I have from that evening. It was Charles coming up to me on the trampoline. "Here" He told me handing me a yellow flower. "Thank you" I said looking down at the flower and smiled. "Amelia you are my best friend" He said. "Charles you are my best friend as well" I told him. "My friend Andrew told me i can't be friends with girls, but I don't believe him" He said. I tried to give him a hug but he pulled out his hand to stop me. "Sorry but I do not want to get girls lice" He told me.
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My first ever time going to one of Charles races was that year as well. I never raced myself because of my parents money situation so Charles' races were very exciting to me.
I remember my dad had driven both me and Charles to the race since his parents were busy. We talked about racing the whole ride there and when we got there me and my dad got to be front row. My dad bought me popcorn and soda, and I was having the time of my life. Even though I was 5 I still cheered louder then anyone else. "Go Charles, go, go, go Charles" I cheered. Charles was fighting for the first place against some other kid and I remember when he finally overtook him and won the race. I cheered so loud that I couldn't speak the next day.
Ever since that day Charles' family took me with them to every race.
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I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I just quickly wanted to say that I of course know that Charles and his family are Monegasque but since the story is in English everyone just speaks English, I hope you understand!