♡●♡●♡
"So, ready for everyone to find out what a liar you are." Says Nathan, and Arthur rolls his eyes and walks further. He has no time or energy to deal with this.
"I'm asking you something, Leclerc!" Shouts Nathan and Arthur keeps walking. He hears the heavy footsteps behind him.
He feels a hand on his shoulder and then he is held back and turned around. His back falls against the lockers and Arthur looks straight into Nathan's eyes.
"I have a class to go to. Could you let me go?" Asks Arthur and grins a little at the annoyed face of Nathan.
"You think you're funny, but you're not. When we go on the tour in Ferrari, everyone will see how Charles wouldn't even react to you. You only have the same surname, nothing more. Everyone knows that Charles has one brother, Lorenzo. If you were his younger brother, the media would have known."
"What do you want me to say? It doesn't matter what I say. You made everyone against me, I'm not even going tomorrow because you ruined it for me." Says Arthur and Nathan and his mates starts to laugh.
"Plus I don't ever said he was my brother, you made that up and I'm getting shit about it."
"See, you don't even dare to come because you know you lie."
"I know one mistake, and that was telling my surname." Says Arthur.
"We don't even know who your real family is." Says Nathan.
"You don't even care." Says Arthur, and then stands up right.
"If you excuse me." And Arthur deliberately bumps his shoulder into Nathan's and then walks to his classroom.
It's going to be a fun few days.
♡●♡●♡
There is not a lot to say about his classes, he gets information for hours in a row and then he has to do further work at home to show that you understand, and that continues for a few lessons in a day.
It's a lot.
Thursday is the day he has the shortest teaching hours, but with a lesson that he finds difficult. Numbers aren't his biggest talent. He can tell you everything about a car, including the speed and how much it goes. He can calculate all that.
But the standard math, he's terrible at it and he doesn't understand it.
"Oh, I have the last information for you about tomorrow. They expect you at 10 o'clock. We meet at the entrance at half past 10. A Ferrari employee is waiting for us there and gives us a tour. Don't walk away from the group. After the tour you can walk around freely to watch the pit stops. We have rented a tent and we can watch tomorrow's free training sessions there. Any questions?" Ask the teacher.
"Are we seeing any drivers?" Asks Lias, and Arthur looks at him while he looks at Arthur and Arthur rolls his eyes.
"Charles and Carlos are both going to meet us there. We can ask them questions and after that, they have time to take pictures or autographs."
"You heard that Arthur! I know what I'm going to ask." Laughs Nathan and Arthur sinks down in his seat.
"Stop that. You are going to act mature, you are not going to make fun of classmates in front of those boys. If you do that, I'm going to send you away immediately." Says the teacher, and Arthur feels his cheeks getting red.
He hates all the attention.
"But sir, don't you want to know the truth!" Says Nathan.
"Don't crash his little dream." Says the teacher, and Arthur's mouth fell open.
What?
He hears his classmates laugh and he looks down at the desk.
Why can't they leave him alone?
The school bells go off and Arthur immediately packs his things and leaves the room. He picks up his phone and then sees Lorenzo's message.
Lorenzo: Almost done?
You: Almost, I have to pee first!
After putting the books he no longer needs in his locker, he walks to the bathroom.
When he's done washing his hands the door is closed and Arthur takes a step back.
"Even the teachers don't believe you." Says Lias and Nathan is next to him.
"I was there, I heard." Says Arthur.
"You really think you are better than all of us, no?" Says Nathan and walks towards Arthur, who set steps backwards.
His back hits the wall and Nathan stands in front of him with a smirk.
"Where is the big mouth of you now?"
"Let me go." Says Arthur and a shock runs through his body when Nathan grabs his upper arm and has a firm grip on him.
"If I was you, I wouldn't even dare to show my face after this weekend." Says Nathan, and Arthur is still looking at the grip on his arm.
“Awnser me freak!” Shouts Nathan and Arthur are looking at him with big eyes.
"Weak, lost your tongue?"
Arthur hates how Nathan laughs in his face.
He lets go of Arthur and together with Lias, he walks out of the bathroom. Arthur grabs his arm and rubs it.
He hears his phone ping again and he takes his phone from his pocket.
Lorenzo: it's been ten minutes, you okay?
“Shit.” Curse Arthur and he grabs his bag and goes to the exit.
He soon sees Lorenzo's car and he walks towards it.
Lorenzo is sitting in his car and opens the door when he sees Arthur approaching.
Arthur opens the passenger door and then sits down, his bag between his legs and says hey to Lorenzo.
"That was a long piss." Says Lorenzo.
"I had to drop off some books, otherwise I would have a really heavy bag for nothing." Says Arthur.
“Homework?”
"Math, I'm done with the rest." Says Arthur and settle down in the seat.
"Are you okay?" Asks Lorenzo when Arthur stares out of the window and not even once looked at him.
"Yeah." Says Arthur, but he still doesn't look.
Lorenzo starts the car and with a last look at Arthur, he drives away, trying to ignore the feeling in his stomach.
♡●♡●♡
"Arthur!" They arrive at the Ferrari hospitality and Charles spots them very fast.
"Hey." Says Arthur, and hugs Charles back.
He hates how weird it feels.
"Good day at school?" Asks Charles and Arthur nods.
"Yes it was, math homework as usual." Says Arthur and Charles looks at him.
"Shall I tour you around or do you want to finish your homework?" Ask Charles
"I can take a break from school, so do the tour." Says Arthur and they start walking.
"Oh, bye the way, I told Pierre you were coming." Says Charles and Arthur looks at him.
"I know you wanted to be low key but I had to tell Pierre." Says Charles.
"I don't care, you can tell him. Pierre's not the media." Says Arthur.
"He was excited." Says Charles and Arthur smiles.
"It's been a long time."
“It is, what was it, 2017?” Asks Charles and Arthur nods.
“Dad's funeral.” Says Arthur, and Charles looks at him and nods softly.
"So long." Says Charles.
"I've been to the races but in the crowd in Monaco, never behind the scenes." Says Arthur.
“Never?” Asks Charles, and Arthur shook his head.
"Oh by the way, Maman is going home tonight. I asked her." Says Lorenzo, and Arthur looks at him.
"What did she say?"
"She messages me that she will be home tonight and can't wait to see me and Charles." Says Lorenzo and let see his phone with the message between him and their mother. Arthur smiles at him but he couldn't help to feel the sinking feeling in his stomach.
She only tells in the message how much she missed Lorenzo and Charles and can't wait to see them. Arthur hadn't seen her in two whole weeks, and before that, it wasn't even much. Only hello's and goodbyes.
Of course she doesn't think about him.
"Arthur?" He looks up at Charles his voices.
"There you are, we lost you there." Laughs Charles.
"Maybe I do want to finish Math first. I need to have it done before Monday." Says Arthur, and he sees the frowns on their faces.
"Can you show me your motorhome, please?'' Asks Arthur and Charles nods.
"Of course." Says Charles, but he sounds confused, and Arthur doesn't blame them.
♡●♡●♡
And that is how he finds himself alone in a room he doesn't even know. He's sitting at a table but he's looking around more than focusing on his math.
There are racing suits, boots, shirts, pants, helmets and so much more. Arthur had seen him a hundred times during his internship but never from Charles himself. Not in his Formula 1 career.
Crazy to think about how his big brother is a formula 1 multi-time grand prix winner and he had never seen it from so close.
It made him think back about how less he see his brothers. And thinking about not seeing them again for many months after this weekend hurts.
He liked knowing he wasn't alone in his house last night. Waking up and making three teas and not one, it's been so long.
After this weekend he will be alone again in the same empty house.
Arthur walks around the motorhome. It's not big but a lot of things to see. He sees the phone frame and he tries to ignore it but he can't. He can't ignore the picture of Charles and Lorenzo. Charles had won, he was in his racing suit and still had his helmet on, he stood in front of Lorenzo, who was cheering while they were hugging.
He didn't have a picture like that with Charles. He doesn't have a lot pictures with them after 2016. The last picture he had was Christmas last year and you know what funny is, he's not even on the picture, he made it of Maman Charles and Lorenzo.
They didn't take a picture with all of them. And he remembers very well what was said. "You don't want to be on social media, you can make the picture then, you don't have to be in it."
It made him sad, it still does.
And now knowing that they didn't even realize how long they had seen Arthur, three months ago wasn't special because they were also catching up with friends before the season started. And Arthur was at school so he wasn't much home.
He looks at his math book and sighs before sitting down again. He doesn't understand it.
He's so stupid.
It feels like all the numbers are wandering around and he can't focus on where exactly they are, and what do they want from him? A graph, table, a sum? You have so many ways and it makes his head hurt.
He hates numbers.
He grabs his phone and looks for an explanation video on YouTube. Yes, that's how he's been doing his math homework. Online teachers are the best when you don't understand something.
He really wants to understand it all, even when it is so difficult. He is trying and he knows that he's trying his best so he can be happy when he succeeded the test.
"Baby Leclerc!!!" Arthur starts up and Pierre runs in and falls on top of Arthur.
"Look at you all grown up! Wow." Arthur laughs when he hears the familiar French accent..
"And you're still small, I see." Says Arthur and Pierre laughs.
"I missed you!" Says Pierre, and when they sat up again, wraps Pierre an arm around his shoulder.
"How are you?'' Asks Pierre, but Arthur looks at Charles and Lorenzo who are also inside.
"I'm good, homework. Probably a word you don't know." Says Arthur and Pierre laughs again.
"Never heard of that."
"Thought so." Says Arthur with a laugh.
"Still doing math, how much did he give you?" Ask Lorenzo.
"Not much, but I didn't understand, so I looked up a video that would explain it for me."
"Want me to help?" Asks Lorenzo and stands up to sit next to Arthur.
"I think I understand it now, a little bit. I'm just really bad with numbers." Says Arthur and looks at his work.
"Why didn't you call, I could have helped." Says Lorenzo.
"I thought you had a job to do, so no, I won't keep you off your work." Says Arthur.
"Oh by the way!" Charles sits up.
"I have arranged that you can watch F2, walk past the garages and look at the cars." Says Charles.
"Really?" Asks Arthur and Charles nods.
"Yes! I thought you would like that." Says Charles and Arthur nods.
"I do!"
"You watch F2?" Asks Pierre and Arthur nods.
"It's more action, sorry for you but they can just overtake more and all that." Says Arthur.
"Can't blame you. They all have the same car, we don't. Look at Red Bull, we already know they are going to win." Says Pierre.
"They are, Max is amazing this season." Says Arthur.
"Excuse me?" Says Charles and Arthur laughs.
"Your team needs to get their shit together." Says Arthur and then looks back at his math and sighs after he read the question.
"I don't understand a shit of this." Says Arthur, and drops his head on his textbook. He hears the three of them laughing and Lorenzo put a hand on his arm.
"I'm going to help you." Says Lorenzo and Arthur looks at him.
He hates the warm feeling he gets inside.
This is what he missed all those years.
♡●♡●♡
After Arthur had finished his homework, Charles showed the Ferrari garage and the hospitality.
They grabbed some lunch there. Arthur could grab whatever he wanted but saw how Charles had to figure out everything he could get and what not.
"So Maman just message me that she is at home. You're almost done and then we can go." Says Lorenzo and Charles nods.
"Last team meeting and then we are done." Says Charles and stretches.
"Oh, I heard I'm going to be at your school trip, I tried to get out of it but I had to go, sorry. They got mad at me for saying I don't want to." Laughs Charles.
"You didn't have to do that, but thanks for trying. I don't want you to get into some problems because of me." Says Arthur.
"I know, but I don't want you to feel uncomfortable," Says Charles.
"I don't, thank you." Says Arthur and looks at his hand. He knows that when he's nervous he's picking and pulling on his skin. Right now, his wrist is completely red with spots and Arthur lets go and puts his other arm on the table.
"But do they know you are my brother or not?'' Asks Charles and Arthur shook his head.
"Some asked, and others don't believe. I mean on Google it says that you have one brother and that is Lorenzo. I let it that way." Lies Arthur.
Charles nods and looks at his plate, Arthur could see the sad impression on his face.
"So we're going to keep it that way? We can't come to you?" Ask Lorenzo.
"If you don't mind. I want to keep things like they are." Says Arthur and they nods.
And what if people only get more at him for not being the brother of Charles Leclerc. They already think he's lying so it doesn't matter. He would rather keep it that way than have everyone be nice to him all at once, wanting to be his friend because of who his brother is.
It's still really weird, he never said anything, but it came as a rumour that he was their little brother and then Arthur was looking at pictures on his phone and Nathan grabbed it from him. It was a picture of Lorenzo and a baby, Arthur, but they thought it was Charles and made fun of him for having this picture on his phone. And how stupid he is that Arthur wants to make people believe he's their brother.
He never tried anything to let people believe he's their brother.
"Okay, we will do that." Says Charles and Arthur nods.
"Thank you."
"But do you have the chance to sneak out of there when the tour is done? I have a pass for you on Friday in F2. Otherwise I will chance it." Says Charles.
"No, we can look at all the pit stops after that, so I can go away." Says Arthur.
"I will wait for you in the Ferrari hospitality. I'm going with you." Says Lorenzo and Arthur nods.
"I will hide my pass in my bag." Says Arthur.
"Good, you need to bring it with you, otherwise you can't get in to the paddock." Says Lorenzo.
Charles looks at his watch and then takes a big bite.
"I have to go, see you later!" Says Charles, and then he was gone.
"He's so messy it's unbelievable." Says Lorenzo and Arthur laughs.
"Are you sure you want us to ignore you tomorrow? Why don't you want people to know you're our little brother? I mean it's not fair to you that Google says Charles had one brother." Says Lorenzo.
"I don't care about those things, my name doesn't have to be on the internet. I don't want people to be friends with me because of who my brother is. Like if they don't want me for me, then I don't need them." Says Arthur and Lorenzo nods.
"I didn't think about it like that." Says Lorenzo and Arthur shrugs.
Lorenzo has no idea what his life is like.
♡●♡●♡
"Okay, we might have a problem." Says Charles who just finished his meeting.
"What?" Ask Lorenzo.
"Fans broke down the fences at the cars. The police are trying to back them off but they are with so much that they can't get it in control. Pierre called me earlier. We can go to the car and leave, but we have to go through all those people." Says Charles, and Arthur's hand already start to shake.
“When will it be resolved?” Ask Lorenzo.
"They don't know, when all the drivers have left? They want to see us and are not leaving before that." Says Charles, and Arthur feels two pairs of eyes on him.
"So they are going to take pictures and videos?'' Asks Arthur.
"Well they are fans, so yeah." Says Charles.
“Shit.” Whispers Arthur. He doesn't have a coat or anything with him because the sun is shining. He only has the shirt he's wearing.
"Okay, let's go to my motorcycle home and see what we have there to cover you up." Says Charles and starts to walk.
It's a short walk and Arthur is biting his lip.
This was where he was so scared for. He knew something like this would happen.
"I have a cap, it's mine but you can wear it. A hoodie, where is a hoodie." Mumbles Charles while he's looking around.
"If you put the hoodie on with a cap, you need to look down then, your face will not be seen, I think." Says Charles and Arthur nods.
"Got it!" Says Charles, and then throws the hoodie at Arthur who put it on.
It's big, like really big on Arthur.
"Don't you have a lower size?" Asks Arthur and Charles laughs.
"No, this is my size, you're too skinny." Charles laughs when he sees his brother.
"I'm the same size as you."
"In height. You haven't trained your muscles like Charles." Says Lorenzo and squeezes Arthur's arm.
"Okay, cap on and the hood." Charles puts it on his head and then grabs the hood.
"Hold my arm and look down. No one will see your face, I will drag you with me, okay?'' Asks Charles and Arthur nods.
"But I don't see where I'm walking then." Says Arthur.
"Trust me okay, I will get you safely to the car. But try to hide your face with your other hand too, especially when we are in the car." Says Charles and Arthur nods.
And that is how they start walking. Arthur grabbed Charles by his arm and Charles kept him close when they walked out of the paddock towards the car.
Arthur hears the screams, he gears how Charles his name is getting shouted with so many voices. He feels the hand from Lorenzo on his back and how Charles pulls him forward. All Arthur sees is feet so many feet around them.
He sees flashes of light and things falling to the ground. He pushes the cap down more and holds the hood with his loose hand.
"Almost there." Says Charles.
"Who's that!"
"New Girlfriend Charles?"
"Show your face."
There are so many things that are getting shouted and Arthur's head hurts.
This is what Charles has to do every weekend? Wow.
"We're at the car." Says Charles, and he hears the car door open and Arthur gets in the back. He keeps his head low and fastens his seat belt.
"Okay, that was step one." Says Charles, who is at the wheel.
"The police escort us out." Says Lorenzo and Arthur really wants to look, but he knows that people are still taking pictures.
"Are you okay back there, Art?" Ask Lorenzo.
"Yes." Breathes Arthur out and he breathes deep in and out, trying to calm his panicking feeling.
“Almost out.” Says Charles and Arthur rest his head against the door. He's still hiding his face.
♡●♡●♡
They finally got home. The whole ride home, Arthur hide beacuse it's so busy in Monaco.
Arthur walks inside and lets the door open for Charles and Lorenzo.
"It's so busy man." Says Lorenzo
"Crazy isn't." Says Arthur, and he takes off the hoodie. It's way too hot.
When he takes off his hoodie, his shirt goes with it and his sleeves are up. Arthur wants to tidy it up so that it fits normally again and his eyes fall on the bruise with a red welt.
"What happened with your arm?" Asks Lorenzo and Arthur looks up at the shocked faces of his brothers.
"Joking around at school with friends." Lies Arthur and before they can ask more opens the kitchen door.
"My boys!" Arthur looks at his mother and he smiles. She looks good, she looks happy and healthy.
She wraps his arms around Charles and then around Lorenzo and Arthur feels the heavy weight on his stomach.
She walked right past him and didn't even glance at him.
"How was your day? Do you want something to drink." Asks Maman and then she walks past Arthur again.
She really didn't say hello to him?
What did he do?
"I'm going to take a shower." Whispers Arthur and he sees Lorenzo looking at him, but Arthur walks upstairs, not looking back.
He hasn't seen her in two weeks and then she doesn't even say hello to him? Is she mad at him? Did he do something wrong?
He doesn't understand.
~~~
My heart is already hurting for Arthur 😞