♡●♡●♡
"Hello Arthur, good on time." Says his teacher and Arthur give him a smile and takes his pass from him.
"Excited?" Asks Arthur and his teacher has a big smile on his face.
Arthur always had good contact with Mr Ardon. It's the only teacher who doesn't make fun of his surname.
"I am! This is the first time I've ever gone to a Grand Prix."
"Big fan?" asks Arthur.
"I am. But I never had the chance to go or the money." He says.
"Well you're young, and now you work here so you can go for free on Friday." Says Arthur, and the man smiles.
"Have you been before?"
"Yeah, I used to be with my father and brothers. And for the last few years I went with my mother." Says Arthur
"Not your dad and brothers?"
"My dad died in 2017 and since then I went with my mum, and I haven't seen my brothers much, really." Says Arthur.
"I didn't know that. I'm so sorry." He says.
"It's shitty but yeah, we can't chance it. My brothers are older than me so they are out of the house." Says Arthur.
"How much?"
"The middle is 25 and the oldest 34."
"There are age gaps, no? You are?"
"There is yes, I'm nineteen. I think I wasn't planned." Laughs Arthur.
"Well, if they already had such a gab to your other brothers."
"Enzo, the oldest, has a different father, so Maman had him with another man." Says Arthur and Mr Ardon makes an O with his mouth.
"That can explain."
They are interrupted by other students arriving and Arthur looks around.
He sees a lot of people walking, almost everyone has formula 1 merchandise on, all different teams. It makes him smile how many people are wearing the Ferrari merchandise with Charles on his back.
It's always nice to see how loved Charles is in their hometown.
"So, ready to get you exposed?" Nathan wraps an arm around Arthur's shoulder and Arthur rolls his eyes.
"I'm more curious about how they will look at you with your red bull shirt." Says Arthur, and Nathan let him go.
"I can't wait to ask Charles."
"You really dare?" Asks Arthur and he looks bored at Nathan.
He doesn't feel scared. The teachers have already told him that he can't ask that and if they do, they will see what happens. He already knows in his class who he can trust.
No one.
He was really stressed about it. But last night he thought, what if they know? It's not a crime, he's the brother of. And no one stood up for him, so he would never make friends in his school.
"Charles and Lorenzo left yesterday with someone who hide themselves. Do you think it was Arthur?" Arthur looks around at who he sees talking, but he doesn't see anyone looking at him. He doesn't reconize the voice but people are thinking about it.
"You are not even listening to me." Arthur feels a fist against his chest and then looks up at Nathan again.
"What if I don't want to?"
"You really have a big mouth." Hiss Nathan and he has his face close to Arthur's.
"Let's see if you have that next week too." He says and then leaves.
"Arthur, were you here yesterday?" Arthur looks up again and then sees two girls standing next to him. He doesn't recognize them. They are not from his class.
"How do you know my name?" Asks Arthur.
"Everyone does, now answer." The blonde says and Arthur frowns.
"No I wasn't. And even if I was, it's none of your business," Says Arthur.
"I told you he wasn't. He isn't family of Charles. He doesn't even look as handsome as they do." The brunette pulls the blonde girl away and leaves Arthur alone.
"Okay, people we are complete. Everyone has their passes?" Asks Ardon and then they walk to the gates. Everyone scans their pass and Arthur looks around again.
Everything is the same as yesterday. The only thing that's different is that there are a lot of people.
"Let's stick together. I don't want you to get lost. Arthur come over here!" Shouts Mr Ardon and Arthur walks towards him.
Soon a person wearing Ferrari clothes arrives.
He starts to explain what they are going to do. We get the tour, then we can look at the pit stops of all the teams and around one o'clock we are taken to the tent because then Formula 1 starts in half an hour.
They start walking and Arthur hears the whispers next to him and behind. It was something he had yesterday. Everything looks so much cooler in real life then on the television.
Along the way, the man tells something about Ferrari or about F1 itself.
About how Ferrari got into the sport and how many people work there, all the standard things that are always said.
When they arrive at the Ferrari garage they are not allowed to go anywhere, which makes sense. We are behind the desk. They are finishing both cars to make them ready for the first free practice.
They start the engine of Charles' car and Arthur starts to smile. He loves the sound of the engine.
To be fair, Arthur is not listening too much, he's looking around and thinking, maybe a bit too much thinking.
He just hopes everything will be okay after they saw Carlos and Charles. He doesn't want to be looked different at.
He looks at the people at the computers, he sees a lot of words on them. Probably all the data or the strategy about what they want to do next. It's something Arthur is really interested in with how everything works.
"Okay, so that's our garage. Let's go and meet our drivers."
"You heard that Leclerc." Shouts Lias and Arthur grabs his arm. He sees the Ferrsri employee, who's name is Julio, looking at him.
He sees how everyone looks at Arthur and of course he had to ask.
"Your surname is Leclerc?" Julio asks and Arthur nods.
"It is, yeah." Says Arthur and Julio starts to laugh.
"Lost brother? Who knows." Laughs Julio and Arthur bit the inside of his lip. Why did he go? Why didn't he stay home.
They start walking and Arthur looks at the ground while they walk. He feels so awkward, he knew this was going to happen and still he feels so uncomfortable. His stomach feels sick, like he can puke every moment now.
"We have a lot of our academy drivers, who test our sim or just look with us and get to know what is going to happen with them if they make it to Formula 1."
"Did an academy driver end up in your car?" Asks Nick and Julio nods.
"Charles was an academy driver, we had Mick Schumacher who ended up somewhere else but he did make it. Those are a few, but we have really exciting drivers driving for us in F2 and F3. Like Oliver Bearman drives in F2 and he's doing a good job this season, which always helps to get that one step closer.
"Ahh I love Oliver, he's a sweetheart!" Says Naomi
"He's busy so I can't grab him for you." Laughs Julio and Arthur roll his eyes.
Drivers are not dolls you can grab so that people can see them.
"Grab a seat, our drivers will be with you soon."
Arthur starts walking to the back. He doesn't have to sit in first class to see his own brother.
And maybe people will leave him alone.
"Hey, aren't you sitting with the rest?'' Mr Ardon sits down next to him and Arthur wraps his arms around himself.
"No thank you." Says Arthur.
"Are you okay?" He asks and Arthur stares in front of him, he doesn't know what to say.
He isn't doing okay, but he doesn't want to tell his teacher that.
"They are mean to you, are they always like that?" Asks Ardon and Arthur shrugs, still not talking.
"Why didn't you ever say that? I knew they made fun of your surname, but now they are just insulting you."
"I'm used to it by now." Says Arthur.
"If you don't want to be here, you can also say that, you know." Mr Ardon says and Arthur looks at his shoes.
"If I leave now, everything will be much worse."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
It's the first time that someone has taken him seriously.
"They are thinking I'm lying, so It doesn't matter what is going to happen, everything will be worse on next Monday."
"Do they bully you?" Asks Mr Ardon, and Arthur shook his head.
"They don't, but this can go two ways. They all think I really did lie and if they get to know, everyone will be faking around me so that they can be friends with me in the hope to meet Charles." Says Arthur.
"Is he your brother?" Asks Mr Ardon and Arthur nods. He dares to tell him, it's not like Mr Ardon will be different.
"I'm sorry to hear this. It must be a lot to feel like this. Not knowing if people will like you for you." He says.
"I know it will be fake. They don't want anything to do with me now. It would be too much of a coincidence if they wanted to be friends all at once. I'm not stupid." Says Arthur.
“But it feels bad.” Says Ardon and Arthur nods.
“It is, but I will manage.” Says Arthur.
"You have to, no?" He asks and Arthur looks at him and then nods.
"I have no choice. I will always be the little brother of."
♡●♡●♡
Arthur felt sick, worse than it already was. Mr Ardon left him alone and he saw his brother standing in front of him, doing his job. Being the Ferrari driver in front of his class.
He's going to puke.
So far away, he's good. No awkward questions or Charles who is still looking at him like he thought that would happen.
He did see him searching for Arthur. Carlos whispered something in Charles' ear and Charles nodded in the direction of Arthur and he saw Carlos looking at him.
He's not next to a classmate, he's a row above all alone, and he never met Carlos so he can understand that Carlos asked his brother who he is.
Charles and Carlos are talking about their journey to F1, joking with each other.
Arthur does really like seeing Charles like this. Talking about his career and it made him really proud.
He laughs with Charles when he or Carlos make a joke. It made him happy to see that Charles have a teammate who can really work together and are friends.
"Who supported you through your career?" There came the questions.
"Good question. My dad, I did everything with him, and of course with the rest of my family supported me really well. But my dad travels with me through karting so it's really special to have him here in race weekend." Says Carlos.
"Same for me. My dad really helped with karting. Sadly he passed away but I really had good support from my big brother." Says Charles.
"Hey Arthur, your dad is dead too, right?" Shouts Lias and Arthur sinks down in his seat. He sees everyone looking at him and Arthur's eyes meet Charles, who is looking concerned.
"That's not very nice." Says Charles, and looks at Lias who sits back down.
"Do you have more brothers or sisters?" Asks Nathan and Arthur starts by pulling the skin around his wrist. His heart rate is high, he feels it pounding in his throat.
"I have two sisters." Says Carlos, and Charles looks at him.
"Are they here this weekend?" Asks Charles, and Carlos shook his head.
“Back off eh.” Says Carlos and Charles laughs.
"Okay next one." Says Julio and Arthur sees Charles looking at him. Arthur gave him a smile and sees how Charles winks at him.
A few more questions were asked until they said that was fine. Photos are still being taken, but Arthur is not in the queue.
He's standing next to Mr Ardon again, who didn't say anything, and not that Arthur minded because he didn't want to speak.
He still has to ask if he can go. He will go to F2 with Lorenzo in an hour. And he really wants to go away too.
Maybe he doesn't want to go to f2. He's done with the day already.
"Hey Arthur, don't you want to take a picture?" Shout out to Nathan and he walked towards Arthur.
Arthur can't help but glare at Nathan. Now they have almost everyone their attention again.
"No thank you." Says Arthur but Nathan grabs his arm.
"You should, he's your namesake." Says Nathan and pulls Arthur forward.
"Nathan!" He hears Mr Ardon shouts but the older boy ignores him.
He sees the eyes of Charles on him and Arthur can't help but feel embarrassed.
“Smile.” Arthur wants to punch the grin of Lias his face.
Arthur is pushed towards Carlos and Charles, and then he stands between them.
Charles puts an arm around him and he feels Carlos' hand on his back.
"Are you okay, petit? Asks Charles and Arthur looks at him and nods his head.
“Are they always like this?” asks Carlos.
"No." Says Arthur, and he looks at Nathan and Lias who are almost pissing themselves with laughter.
He sees the man holding up his thump and Arthur immediately leaves from the two drivers.
"Arthur!" He hears Charles shouts but Arthur left the room.
♡●♡●♡
After half an hour, Arthur walks back to the group. He got a message from Mr Ardon asking him if he was okay and he could come to him.
And that's how Arthur found his way back to them, something he really didn't want to.
Mr Ardon was fortunately alone when Arthur found him.
"Are you okay?" Asks Mr Ardon right away and Arthur nods.
"I want to go, if you don't mind." Says Arthur, and Mr Ardon shook his head.
"No, of course I don't. I'm so sorry this happened." He says.
“There's nothing you can do about it.” Says Arthur.
"But I still feel really bad."
"It will be okay. Thank you for letting me go." Says Arthur.
"It's not fair, the way they treat you is not fair. You are such a kind person and you don't deserve this only for your surname." Says Mr Ardon.
"They pick who they can." Says Arthur.
"Can you tell me if they get worse? I don't want bullying on our school, you hear me." He says and Arthur nods.
"They don't bully, don't worry. Everything is just a bit worse because of the GP. They will leave me alone after all this." Says Arthur.
"You sure?'' He asks and Arthur nods.
"Okay. Take care."
"I will. You too. And enjoy the day, make it fun for yourself too." Says Arthur, and Mr Ardon gave him a smile.
Arthur starts walking towards the Ferrari hospitality, where he will meet Lorenzo.
He didn't expect Charles to be there too.
"What are you doing here?'' Asks Arthur and sits down next to Charles.
"I asked if I could go talk to you. What happened there?" Asks Charles and Arthur feels himself sinking in the seat.
"They were just joking. They laugh because my name is Leclerc and make jokes about it. They think I'm not family of yours, so they find it funny."
"I didn't get the intention that it was funny. Neither for you." Says Charles.
"I hear those jokes for weeks now, I'm done with them. But they don't mean it in a bad way." Says Arthur.
"It did look like it. Even Carlos asked it if you're okay in your school, this looked a lot like bullying."
"It wasn't! They are just joking, chill. We're at Uni, not high school." Says Arthur.
"Are you sure?" Asks Charles and Arthur nods.
"Don't worry. Thanks for not telling." Says Arthur.
"That's why I didn't say anything. I couldn't say only Lorenzo when you're there." Says Charles and Arthur smiles at him softly.
"I understand." Says Arthur.
"So, ready for F2 cars?" Asks Lorenzo, and Arthur nods.
"Oh! I asked Rene and you can go to him and he will show you how they work if you like." Says Charles.
"Rene?"
"Oh, yeah, Prema. My old team in F2, he's the team principal and he was really excited." Says Charles
"That's fun." Says Arthur, and Charles looks at his watch.
"Okay, I need to go. Have fun." Says Charles and gives Lorenzo and Arthur a quick hug.
"Are you really okay? You don't look fine." Says Lorenzo.
"I'm okay. Or do you know that better too? Like you know how everything went when you weren't home, so you probably know my feelings too."
It's bad of Arthur to express his frustration to Lorenzo but he couldn't care at that moment.
“Still mad?” Asks Lorenzo and Arthur looks at him.
"I don't know." Says Arthur and stand up.
"Can we go?" Asks Arthur and Lorenzo stands up too and they walk in silence to the F2/F3 paddock.
"So on this side you have F3 and down there you have F2."
"It looks bigger on the television." Says Arthur and he looks around.
Instead of real garages, they have tents. But it looks so cozy.
He saw Lorenzo walking further, skipping all the cars but Arthur couldn't. He watched the car and the mechanics, who were very busy.
He loves the colors of Van Amersfoort racing. The black car with the orange gives that extra effect and it looks even more beautiful with your own eyes then on the television.
He walks further, he sees Lorenzo talking with a man from Prema. They are laughing and he didn't get the feeling they were waiting for Arthur, so he took a further look.
He stopped at MP Motorsport. One orange car and a redbull academy one. There were a lot of red bull cars from what Arthur could see. I mean he did know, because of the races, it's difficult sometimes to see who it is.
"Hello." Someone says and Arthur smiled.
"Hey." Says Arthur, still looking at the cars.
"Are you from another team? I haven't seen you around?" Arthur looks up and looks at the boy who's standing next to him.
"No I'm not. I'm here with my brother, he's talking so I'm taking a look at all the cars." Says Arthur and the other man smiles.
"And what do you think?"
"I like it, they look like old cars but with a new touch, I love that." Says Arthur.
"Fan of cars?"
"I am. I work here in the museum so I really love seeing cars and getting to know." Says Arthur.
"You do? Cool." Arthur looks at him, he's young.
"And you?" Asks Arthur and the man starts to laugh.
"That's my car." And he points to the Red Bull car.
"I'm Dennis Hauger." He says and Arthur smiles.
“Arthur Leclerc.”
~~~
They met!