The sun beamed down with an intense heat on the Australia Zoo as thousands of people milled around, taking in the animals that were happily lounging about. Various zoo personnel were in the enclosures for feeding, checking up or movement. Robert, as always, was doing a show in the Crocoseum with his mother keeping a careful eye.
Sophi was on the other side of the park in the dolphin enclosure, doing one of her shows. The Aquarium, as they called it, was set up much like the one at Seaworld, but had no large speakers blaring music, no fancy costumes or acts. It was just Sophi in a black wetsuit swimming about with the mammals. She'd wear a waterproof microphone and spit out facts while the dolphins played around, jumping out of the water and splashing the front few rows.
"Now, I need a very special volunteer." She already knew who she was choosing. A man had come in earlier saying he'd brought his niece there especially and had even made a large donation to the zoo. Sophi pretended to scan the stadium of children stretching their hands up and then clambered up the steps from the water to then reach the seats. She made her way to where she saw the little girl with her uncle and knelt next to her.
"What's your name?"
"Isabella!" She yelled excitedly. "And that's my uncle Daniel!"
"Well, do you want to come to the pool and meet my friends?" The girl, now lost for words, nodded and took Sophi's outstretched hand and walked by her side to the steps leading to the ledge atop the pool. She was wearing a little dress so there was no worry for the hem getting wet when Sophie brought her to another ledge where the water was ankle height.
Kermie, one of the three dolphins swimming around the pool, heaved himself onto the platform near the girls and splashed water at Sophi. She did the norm for this part, letting Isabella touch Kermie's head, feed him fish, give him a kiss (the little girl blew about five raspberries after to get the taste from her lips) and then took a picture with her next to him.
She loved watching the little children run back to their parents with massive smiles, it was one of her favourite parts of the job. But her absolute favourite was when the park closed and she could sit in the enclosure with her brother and simply be.
"So..."
"What did you do this time, Rob?" The siblings were sat on the steps leading to the dolphin pool and had their feet dangling in the water as the sun was setting prettily over the zoo, casting a warm golden glow over the two. Robert slapped a hand to his chest in mock hurt and gasped.
"Me? Absolutely nothing!" He leaned closer and dropped his voice. "But if Chandler asks, he was always missing his left boot." The siblings laughed, sending ripples across the water. "But seriously, Mum got me tickets to the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend and she's got to stay here to manage the zoo and Bindi and Chandler can't leave Grace."
"Right..."
"Can you come with me? Everything's already paid for, and we've got VIP paddock passes."
Sophi leaned back, placing her hands behind her and thinking. Did she really want to spend a whole weekend watching cars go round in circles? Then again...a whole weekend already paid for, in a warm country, and she wouldn't even really have to pay attention.
"Okay, fine."
"YES!" Robert flung his arms around Sophi, almost knocking her to the ground. "We're going to have the BEST time." He then gasped and stood up so fast his sister nearly got whiplash. "We've got to start packing!"
"Woah, woah woah, slow down there chief." Sophi stood up and sloshed up the steps. "When do we go?"
"Two weeks!"
~
The brother and sister pair arrived in Bahrain a good twelve hours before the first practice started, Robert was eager to get there as soon as possible so he could see the track and try to run into at least one driver.
"We're in the same hotel as the drivers, Soph! Just think, Lewis Hamilton could be in the room next to us." He stopped mid-corridor and held his arms out, looking much like a meme of a driver he'd shown Sophi on the plane there. "Or even Max Verstappen."
"Okay, Fanboy." Sophi grabbed her little brother and shoved him towards their room. "I'm not meeting any famous people in sweats." As they scanned the door numbers, a voice floated down the corridor.
"I'm telling you, the first number is three, so it's the third floor!" A British accent, presumably there for the race, Sophi ruminated.
"Right, so why can't we find it then, Lando?" Before Sophi had time to think, Robert grabbed her wrist and shook her arm with what she could only describe as the force of one of their crocs.
"That's Lando Norris!" He hissed under his breath. "And Oscar Piastri, this is his rookie season in Formula One! Act cool, don't embarrass me."
"Yes, because I'm the embarrassing one here." Sophi muttered, fishing around in her pocket for Robert's door key, shoving it to his chest. "Go have a shower before the practice, we both smell like plane." She heard Robert mutter something about her being bossy under his breath, and so lightly kicked the back of his knee with a shit-eating grin on her face.
"Excuse me!" Sophi drew in a breath, wiping said grin almost instantaneously. The flight had been long and she wanted nothing more than to sleep.
"Hmm?" She turned to the voice, a tired smile painted on her lips. The person was someone around her age, maybe a year older, with light brown hair and the darker brown eyes she'd ever seen in her life. He sported a bright orange t-shirt and black jeans, quite an odd combination in her eyes, but hey, who was she to judge.
"I saw you're around the 380s." He nodded to the door number above Sophi's head. "I'm 389, but I can't find it."
"I'm 381." Sophi turned to her door. "Try down the hall." She unlocked her door and stepped inside, watching the orange clad man wander further down the hallway. Her hotel room was set up beautifully, a queen sized bed on the left hand side, jacuzzi built into the top right corner, an extremely spacious en suite and a wall that was entirely glass.
Sophi was half tempted to curl up in the jacuzzi, it was certainly big enough to fit two people, but decided to throw herself on the bed, giggling with childish glee when the pillows were flung across the room.
"This is the life." She sighed deeply and sat up, looking at the view across the hotel pool and track. The hotel curved slightly, allowing her to see into other rooms, evidently the man across the way noticed this too as he waved awkwardly at her while clutching yet another orange top. She lifted her hand back with a tight-lipped smile (she seemed to be doing an awful lot of those today) and went back to lying down, turning onto her side and letting sweet sleep take her away.
~
Once Sophi's phone alarm went off, she took the most delicious shower with some vanilla scented shower gel and shampoo she'd bought at the airport, and then picked out her outfit for the paddock. She decided to wash this one after she'd worn it and use it for the other practices and qualifying, but change into a new outfit for the actual race.
She pulled on a pair of flared jeans and a brown bell-sleeved top with a small tie in the front before tying a bow in the laces. Sophi then pulled back some of her hair and tied it in a messy looking half up style and added a few small braids to the section of hair she left down. She then sat herself down in front of the small mirror she's brought and placed on the ground in front of the glass wall and took out some concealer to put on her under eyes.
Robert was sending her through text after text as she swiped mascara on her eyelashes, so she bit the bullet and called him.
"Hello?"
"WHERE ARE YOU? WE NEED TO BE DOWN THERE IN FIFTEEN MINUTES!"
"Oh calm down, Rob." Sophi slung her bag on her shoulder and rammed her rings on her her middle fingers, grabbing a black pearl necklace from the floor next to her. "I'm literally walking out the door now." The blonde hung up and put her door key in her bag with her phone and water bottle, meeting Robert outside.
Robert slung his arm around his big sister with a massive smile on his face, made of pure happiness.
"We're seeing the first race practice of the season!"
Sophi smiled, not particularly eager to watch these cars, but happy that her brother was happy.
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