Max
Glaring, she was good at it. If she was looking at me, which wasn't a lot, it felt like her eyes pierced right through mine. Not one single emotion shown on her face, but I got her message. She did not like it when I called her Lavigne. But why would I care?
We were all in the same conversation in the beginning and after some time the group was split in two. Lavigne, Charles and Yuki were talking about their favorite animals and me, Daniel and Bianca were having a conversation about how many pennies could fit into this room. Daniel came up with that question, obviously.
"I mean like, it's a big room." he started. "But you have to be more specific. Where does the room start and where does it end?" Bianca asked him. I thought for a while and Daniel pointed around. "Okay, I think around 15 000 pennies." she stated. Daniel shook his head. "I think it's a lot more." he said while putting on a thinking face. "What about 25 000?" I suggested. "Maybe that's a little too much." Daniel answered. "A penny is very small and the room is very big." I tried to explain my point.
"Jules what do you think?" Bia suddenly asked her neighbour. Lavigne's head turned while smiling at her friend. "What?" she asked clueless. "How many pennies would it take to fill this room?" Bianca asked her. Lavigne looked around the room while frowning. "Atleast a million mate!" Charles yelled from the other side of the table. We all started laughing as he looked at us confused.
"That's way too much." Daniel told him. "I think around 20 000 maybe." Lavigne said. Daniel pointed at her while nodding. "That's what I thought." he exclaimed happy. "No way! That's not enough." Charles protested. "Do you know how much a million is? That's way too much." Lavigne told him while making hand gestures in the air.
I couldn't believe how worked up everyone got about this.
"Let's bet!" Bianca yelled. "How are we gonna prove our point? You're going to fill this room with pennies and count?" Yuki asked her confused. "Nope, just google it." Bianca answered while holding up her phone. "Okay, let's say this room is 10x10." Daniel said. "What does the winner get?" I asked. I kinda liked to win things. Maybe I was a little too worked up about this too.
"What about the honor of being the winner?" Charles suggested. "You're so boring." Bianca said to him as he gasped loudly. "The winner can make anyone do anything they want. Like a dare to do at the party after the race." Daniel decided excited. Everyone seemed to like the idea.
"You guys party after every race?" Lavigne asked confused. "Hell yeah." Daniel answered quickly but Yuki softly shook his head to make sure she knew that Danny was exaggarating. "So, everyone's in?" he continued impatiently. As all our heads nodded Yuki grabbed a pen and a napkin. "I think it's 18 000." he started. "I'm still going for 15 000." Bianca said. Charles went for 30 000. I guessed 20 000 just like Daniel and Lavigne.
"We can't guess the same thing." she commented. "I said it first you pick a different number." she told us. "If there's a tie we can solve that later." Daniel suggested. Lavigne didn't look pleased by that. But I wasn't going to choose something else. Definitely not after seeing how annoyed she got when I guessed the same as her. Maybe I was rude for being happy when she wasn't. I was also sure that she felt the same.
"Oh god." Bianca said disapointed while looking at her phone. "It really is around 20 000." she continued with closed eyes. "I was so sure." Charles said. I just looked at Lavigne with a smirk on my face. I couldn't help it. Then I my eyes went to Daniel's who was smiling from ear to ear.
"What do we do now?" Lavigne asked. "Another bet?" Yuki suggested. "Or a challenge?" Daniel said with a mischievous grin on his face. "This is so childish." I commented rolling my eyes. Daniel looked at me confused. I was childish sometimes but not when she was sitting in front of me.
"If you think it's childish then it's between me and Danny." Lavigne said clearly annoyed. "I thought you'd be someone who never gave up Verstappen." she continued while shrugging. I exhaled deeply as I answered. "I never said that I wasn't gonna do it." I told her. She just rolled her eyes once again en turned to Danny.
"What do you suggest?" she asked him. "What if the person who qualifies the highest wins?" he asked. "That's so unfair. You both drive a red bull and I'm a rookie." Lavigne protested but I liked this idea. "Well, I like this." I began. "And Danny does too, so that makes 2-1." I finished. I couldn't help but smile in victory. She was never gonna outqualify me.
As Daniel high-fived me she just sighed. "Fine." she simply said and with that it was on. I could see in her eyes that she was annoyed and for a split second I thought she was considering crashing into me. I tried to convince myself she wouldn't but the thought came back a few times.
...
Jules
I was having a good time at lunch until the bet. I loved to win. I had to win.
But qualifying higher than Max and Daniel would be hard. As a rookie probably impossible. Red bull had an amazing car that year and Max was a world champion. It just wasn't fair. But I decided to let it go. It was just a stupid bet.
When we were back in the car driving to the hotel I checked my phone.
'Don't forget the interview tomorrow :)' Alice had send to me.
It was more like a fun video for the youtube channel of Alpha Tauri. I didn't know much about it. I did know that Yuki would be there and Max wouldn't, so I didn't mind going. I looked at Max who was driving, again. He didn't even seem to trust me to drive his car. Was he scared I would actually run into something or was it an attack to his masculinity if a woman drove instead of him?
"I have a little sister." he suddenly said. It seemed like Max was always the one who broke the silence. "What's her name?" I asked still looking at him. He glanced at me over his shoulder en then looked back at ther road. "Victoria." he answered. "You guys would be great friends." he said. I smiled out the window as he said it. "Maybe you could meet at one of the GPs." he continued. "That would be really nice." I said. I meant it.
I guess he was nice sometimes, but I wasn't going to admit that to anyone.
When we arrived back at the hotel Max opened my door and we basically ran through the doors trying to avoid the paparazzi. As we got inside we both took a different elevator and went to our own rooms and I liked it that way. We didn't have to hate eachother, but we definitely didn't have to like eachother either.
...
Narrator
'Daniel Ricciardo wins in Saudi Arabia!'
'What a race for the Australian driver.'
'Second is Max Verstappen and third Fernando Alonso!'
'Charles finishes fourth with his teammate Bianca right behind him.'
'Next is Lewis Hamilton and Sophia Floersch.'
'Yuki takes eigth place and George finishes ninth.'
'The last driver in the points is Lando Norris.'
'Juliette Lavigne didn't score in the points today after a dissapointing qualifying session yesterday.'
...
Jules
I stared at the wall while holding my head in my hands. Qualifying 12th was one thing but not being able to prove that you're worth more during the race was even worse. Finishing 13th really hurted, even more when I remembered the bet. Max had qualified first, big shock. But because of a really bad pitstop, Daniel managed to take his position and win the race.
I was thinking about the bet that Maw had won, when a knock on my door took my attention. I got up and expected it to be Alice, but I was greeted by no other than Max Verstappen. His hair was still sweaty and messy and he was drained in champagne. God, I missed the feeling of a podium already.
"Good race." he said blankly. I frowned. "Good race? Are we talking about the same race?" I asked him confused. He smiled but it looked forced. "Everyone has ups and downs." he said while his eyes pointed to his right. I gently looked while walking closer to Max and noticed the cameras outside. I also noticed how warm my face felt when I got closer to him and I wish I didn't.
'Congratulate eachother after the race.' I recalled from the email.
"Thanks." I just answered and before I could get back into my drivers room Max took my hand and wrapped his arms around my body. I didn't have time to be shocked and just went with it. His hands were akwardly on my waist and I had to stand on my tiptoes to get my arm around his shoulder.
After a second or two, that felt like an eternity, I let go and smile at him just as fake as he was. "Congrats on second place Verstappen." I said to him right before I left emphasizing the second. I knew that a person like him didn't like to be second. But I was suprised when he said 'thanks' and left. Why was I being a hot head?
As I sat back down I couldn't ignore the cold feeling that rushed through my body. I didn't want to be mean, that was his role. Why was I being like that anyways? Maybe everyone was right, I should give him a chance. But it felt like that was already too late.
Why would he still give me a chance?
...
I am having so much fun writing this story, so thank you if you're reading this!
I hope you enjoy this story :)
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Livia xxx