Italics: Finnish
●▬▬▬▬▬ ⋆🧊🇫🇮 ⋆ ▬▬▬▬▬●
ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : Running up that hill
"If I only could, I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places."
"Stop whining!"
"If I fall, you'll be the one crying!"
"You wanted to hike in the first place!"
"I wanted a nice and peaceful hike, not Anneli Raikonnen's hike of intense doom!" Felipe replied, crossing his arms.
They were halfway up hiking up the snowy mountain and Felipe Drugavitch was starting to understand how his style of hiking differs from that of Anneli's.
Jack Doohen, Anneli's Australian best friend, couldn't stop laughing at the two of them. He had hiked with Anneli before so he knew exactly what she was like but it wasn't until this year that he and Felipe became friends through her.
"Come on Felipe, it's good for muscle!" Anneli said happily.
"I hate you," Felipe groaned.
"You love me," Anneli teased.
It was always Felipe that brought out the more light side of Anneli and Jack always brought out her sarcastic side. The three of them were almost like siblings and one could assume they'd been friends all of their life.
"You're insane!" Felipe huffed as he continued hiking.
"I do agree there," Jack laughed.
"You're both dramatic," Anneli replied with an eye roll. "Felipe, I expected you to like this!"
"I do when it is chill!" Felipe replied. "You look like you are on a mission!"
As they made it further up the mountain, the more relieved Felipe felt. Anneli began to slow down a little so the other two could keep up. It was hilarious if you were to tell a random outsider, that a Finnish woman could beat a Brazilian man to hike a mountain. Of course, Anneli had trained and trained and was incredibly well-built and tall, so she did quite well.
When they finally made it to the top, Felipe let out a happy laugh. Anneli grinned at him as Jack yawned.
"We were quicker than I thought," said Anneli, checking her watch. "Good."
"You are officially crazy," Jack laughed.
Truth be told, Anneli missed racing. Most of her life revolved around it and while she liked the odd moments away from it, three months was just too much. She liked the stability of racing even though she adored her family.
Something just made her crave the excitement of it all.
⋯⋯⋯⋯⊱🧊⊰⋯⋯⋯⋯
"Who are you texting, Ice cube?" Felipe asked as he leaned over.
They were on their way to the Race of Champions just a day after hiking up a mountain. Jack had decided to be a last-minute guest and tag along with them too in order to 'keep Anneli from being lonely' but Anneli knew he just wanted to spend time with them as well, especially when Felipe wouldn't be around the grid.
So instead of a nice quiet flight to Sweden, Anneli had to deal with Felipe and Jack acting like children on either side of her.
"No one," Anneli mumbled, trying to move her phone.
"When someone moves their phone, it's normally someone they like in a non-friend way," Jack joked.
Anneli screwed her nose up at him before Felipe gasped.
"She's texting Max Verstappen!"
"What?" Jack gasped with a grin. "Are you?"
"I'm reserve driver for his team—"
"I'm reserve driver for Aston Martin but I'm not out here texting Fernando Alonso or Lance!" Felipe replied suggestively. "And I bet you are not texting Perez so..."
"Just because he is a man and I'm a woman, it does not mean I'm in some secret relationship," Anneli pointed out. "Not that it means anything now! I'm not dating either of you and I text you too!"
"No, you don't," Felipe pouts. "Not that much, we have to annoy you into texting us back. You're willingly texting Verstappen."
"We are...friends," Anneli replied slowly. "I was invited by Robyn Saunders to be apart of their group of something called 'race girlies', whatever that was."
"No way, you're in Robyn's inner circle?" Jack blinked. "Why don't you tell us this stuff, Nel?"
"What is Robyn Saunder's 'inner circle'?" Felipe questioned, confused.
Jack gave a dramatic sign as if the two of them should have already known who the 'inner circle' was. While Jack was only a Formula 2 driver, he was on social media a lot and just thought everyone else knew what was going on too.
"Robyn likes to collect the girlfriends of her friends," Jack explained. "She's really friendly as Anneli now knows."
"And who are the friends?" Felipe asked, tilting his head. "Is this because she's dating Charles Leclerc?"
"Robyn's circle is Mira Atkinson, she's a pro-championship winner for the F1 e-sports and she's engaged Norris. Then there's Marissa Romono, Ricciardo's girl, I don't know much about her," Jack began, counting on his fingers. ".A new one is some Pianist called Mai Chen who's dating Gasly now...and now you're in so..."
"I'm not dating Verstappen," Anneli said clearly. "Robyn just made friends with me because I'm the only other female who's in with the F1 lot."
"Whatever you say," Felipe teased. "You and Max seem very similar..."
"I'm not talking about this with you, Felipe."
"But it's fun—"
"Anyway, Jack, you are flawed because Robyn's best friend is Jamie Chadwick and she doesn't date anyone," said Anneli, feeling like she'd won.
"True but Robyn was friends with Jamie before she joined F1," Jack pointed out with a shrug.
"End of conversation, we're here!"
Anneli quickly got out of the car, glad to finally have a chance to get away from her very annoying friends (even if she loved them). As expected, Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher were waiting for her with large grins.
"Sebastian, they are bullying me!" Anneli called out.
"We weren't!" Jack replied with a grin.
Felipe and Jack were used to Sebastian and Mick being around when Anneli was so there wasn't any 'starstruck' when it came to seeing them. Plus, Jack and Mick were also very good friends as well, since their dad's had known each other.
"I believe Anneli, sorry," Mick said with a laugh.
"Haha!" Anneli pointed at Jack. "I win!"
"She was texting Max Verstappen, we had a right to tease her!" Jack argued.
"You're texting Max?" Mick questioned.
"Idiots," Anneli groaned in Finnish. "He's just like a teammate, you get it, don't you Seb?"
"Sure do," Sebastian smiled as he threw his arm over her shoulder. "Although—"
"Don't you dare."
"I...will not say a word," Sebastian smiled.
Anneli rolled her head as they all walked towards the hotel.
She might have hated the things they said at time but Anneli knew if anyone was going to tease her, she'd rather them be her friends. Besides, she supposed they weren't wrong in some ways.
Max Verstappen was one of the only people she did text on a day-to-day basis.