"What were you thinking? Seriously, what was going through your head when you decided it would be a good idea to punch Ella, again?" Charles shouts, as I walk into the living room and kick my shoes off.
"Can you just listen to what I have to say, instead of shouting at me?" I raise my voice, sitting down on the sofa far away from where Charles is sat. Max sits down in between us.
"Well that depends on how stupid your excuse is." He states, staring at me as I get comfy on the sofa. I've got a feeling we are going to be here for a while.
"So basically. Archie cheated on me, as you know, and we were arguing in the corridor. Then Theo, who is just my friend, came over and told him to leave me alone. Then they got a bit physical, and Ella came over and started shouting at Theo, so I shouted at her and then she pushed me so I punched her." I explain, getting slightly quieter towards the end.
"So you were getting worked up over a boy and then hit Ella." Charles sums up impatiently, raising his eyebrows and sighing slightly.
"That's not what I said. I was defending my best friend." I argue slightly, earning a hum and a slight head nod from Charles. "I was. You just don't understand that because you have no friends." I add.
"Let's not get personal with it. You fucked up. Don't take this out on me." He states, pointing his finger at me and sitting on the edge of the sofa. He looks angry, and I don't really want to make it worse. He'll end up grounding me for years if I keep on pushing.
"I did what I thought was right. I didn't fuck up. She fucking deserved it." I state, getting slightly angrier the more he tells me I'm wrong. He's really starting to piss me off.
The car journey home was actually surprisingly quiet and calm, since Max said that it's Charles' call on what punishment they give me. So that was relatively nice while it lasted.
"No. You went too far, once again." He states firmly, giving me piercing glare and leaning forward so his elbows are resting on his knees.
"I didn't though." I mutter, looking down at my knees and fiddling with my school trousers. They're such an ugly colour, like who picks grey to be the colour of a school uniform. It's so bland and boring. I don't mind black, but grey is just horrendous.
"Yes you did, Emilie. What if she fell over and hit her head and died? You would be responsible for that. You could get charged for murder. Do you understand how serious this is? How serious it could have been?" He rants, standing up off the sofa and pacing in front of me.
I've got to say, he's being extremely boring. I quickly loose focus on what he is saying and the ceiling somehow becomes very interesting.
I've got a bit of a problem. Me and Theo arranged to go ice skating together tomorrow, and it's already been booked and Theo insisted he paid. The only issue is, I haven't asked Charles if I can go yet, or should I say told Charles that I'm going.
"Are you even listening to me?" He almost shouts, looking me straight in my eyes and stopping in front of me. I look at him and nod my head slightly, earning a disbelieving scoff.
"Maybe right now isn't the best time to bring this up, but." I pause, thinking of the best way to word it. I don't want to piss him off anymore than he already is.
"But what?" He asks impatiently, furrowing his eyebrows at me and crossing his arms over his chest.
"I'm going ice skating with Theo tomorrow." I mutter, looking down at my knees and refusing to make eye contact.
"No you're not." He states firmly, shaking his head at me and furrowing his eyebrows in disbelief.
"Well it's booked and paid for, so I've got to go." I say, shrugging my shoulders and leaning back on the sofa.
"I can sort that. Don't you worry. You are not going." He says, anger in his voice as he keeps his stare fixed on me.
"You can't stop me." I state, crossing my arms over my chest and smirking at him slightly. He scoffs, a small smile coming across his face.
"I thought it would go without saying that you're grounded. So you're not leaving this house for the next month without me or Max." He says loudly, quickly loosing his temper once again.
"But what about karting?" I complain, my smirk dropping from my face. If he doesn't let me go karting, I can't get into the championship.
"Not my problem." He shrugs, raising his eyebrows at me and adjusting his stance.
"You can't stop me from karting!" I shout, standing up off the sofa and stepping towards him. I look up to meet his eyes.
"I just did." He states, looking down at me and clenching his jaw. I've noticed he does that when he's angry.
"You're ruining my whole life! I have to drive! I have to get into the championship!" I shout at him, taking a deep breath telling myself to not make things worse.
"Stop shouting at me and listen. You are not leaving this house without me or Max for the next month." He states sternly, keeping his voice relatively calm but I can tell he is angry.
"Yeah you've already said that." I mutter, looking down at the floor and sighing angrily.
"So that means no karting, no going out with friends, no going out with Lando. You are not going to the Grand Prix at the weekend, you are going to stay here with Arthur and you are going to behave. If you don't, you will never be karting again. Am I clear?" He continues loudly after hearing my comment.
"No, Charles. Please." I beg, looking up at him and whining slightly. I really want to go to the Grand Prix.
"Tough shit. You should have thought about that before you punched Ella." He says, looking down at me. I can't really tell what he's thinking, but he looks angry, I know that for sure.
"I'm supposed to be going to the track with Lando tonight, though. He said he will talk to the people who work there about getting me into the championship." I whine slightly, tilting my head back and sighing.
"Well you're going to have to tell him you're not allowed to go anymore." Charles says, not giving a care in the world. If I can't get into the championship now, I'm going to blame him.
"Just please let me go. I've got to go." I almost beg, letting out a small sigh as he shrugs his shoulders.
"If you dare try to go, I'll take your gear away." He threatens, pointing his finger at me. I glare at him, earning an eyebrow raise from both Charles and Max. "Don't look at me like that. This is all your fault." He adds.
"You're a knob head and I hate you. I wish I could have stayed in England." I state before walking out of the living room to make my way upstairs.
"Swearing at me isn't going to change anything. It will only make things worse." Charles calls after me as I stomp up the stairs.
•~•~•~•~•
"Why have I got seven miss calls from Charles?" Lando asks while laughing slightly as he gets his phone out of his pocket, resting his elbows on the table in front.
"I'm not exactly allowed to be here." I say, a small smile on my face as he looks at me in shock.
"Why? What did you do?" He laughs, placing his phone down on the table and grabbing my helmet from in front of me.
"Punched a girl at school, and Charles said that I wasn't allowed out of the house without him or Max for a month." I say quietly, taking a sip of my drink.
"So you snuck out? No wonder Charles is calling me." He says, opening the little box which he brought with him. I think it's some sort of earpiece like what they use for the radios in the f1 cars.
"Anyway, the next session is starting in a few minutes, get ready." He adds, pulling the earpiece out of the box.
"Here, stick these in your ears. They're like AirPods but with wires." He states, giving them to me. I put them in both my ears, they fit perfectly. I pull my balaclava over my head and tuck my hair in, making sure the wires are comfortable against the sides of my face.
"I'll connect those to my phone so I can speak to you while you're racing. You put your helmet on." Lando says, handing me my helmet and unlocking his phone. I slide my helmet on and make sure it's comfortable before doing up the strap underneath my chin.
"Go on then kid. Go kick ass." He says, as I stand up off my chair and begin walking over to the pits. There aren't any other people here. It's probably because it's a school night at eight o'clock.
I put my gloves on as I walk over to the karts. I'm allowed to pick any number I want. I get into kart 18, which is my lucky number, and press my foot on the brake to stop it rolling forward as I start the engine.
"Radio check." Lando says, his voice ringing through my earpieces. I can hear the laugh in his voice. He seems excited.
"Yeah, I can hear you." I smile, flicking down my visor and pulling out of the pits.
"Charles is calling, again." He sighs as I round the first corner. I groan slightly and weave into the next corner. Since it's only me on the track, I can do what I want.
"I'm surprised your phone hasn't had loads of notifications yet." He adds, resting his elbows on the table and watching me drive round the track.
"Max took it off me earlier. I don't have it." I say as I slow down for the series of corners which are approaching, trying to figure out the quickest way to get round them.
"Shit, mate. Charles is here." He says, somewhat urgency in his voice. "Hey mate, how are you?" I hear him say, a slightly guilty laugh laced into his words.
"Emilie. Get your ass off that track now." Charles states firmly, grabbing Lando's phone and talking into the speaker.
"Let me do a fast lap." I say, as the balcony where Lando and Charles are comes into view. I wave at them as they stare at me, Charles looks so angry.
"No. Get off now." He says, his voice brimming with anger. I can tell he's on the verge of shouting. I'm in so much trouble.
I slow down as I approach the pits, Charles walks down the steps and points to the gap where my kart goes. I pull the kart into the spot and he crouches down beside me, turning the engine off.
He flicks my visor up and grabs the bottom of my helmet, forcing me to look at him.
"What the fuck goes through your head? I really want to know why you think it's acceptable to go against our direct instructions." He almost shouts, shaking my helmet slightly.
"I told you I was going karting with Lando, and I said he was going to speak to the guy about getting me into the championships." I state, pulling myself out of the kart and standing up in front of Charles as he lets go of my helmet.
"And I told you no." He says as I begin to walk towards Lando.
"Actually you said I have to tell Lando I'm not allowed to go." I correct, unbuckling my helmet and pulling it off my head, taking off my balaclava and taking the earpieces out of my ears.
"Then I said that if you try to go, I will take all your gear away. Which is exactly what I'm going to do." He states, grabbing my helmet from my hand and holding it in his.
"Oh fuck off. It's my stuff, my dad paid for it. You can't take it away from me." I state loudly, trying to grab my helmet back off him but he moves his hand away.
"I think you'll find I can and I will. I warned you what would happen, I'm not having this argument with you here. We can have it at home, come on." He says, placing his hand on my shoulder and pushing me slightly towards the exit.
"No, I need to talk to the guy about the championship." I say, walking away from him and over to the table where Lando is now stood up and leant against it, speaking to a man.
"Fine. You've got ten minutes, then we're going home." He sighs, slowly following behind me.
"Emilie, this is Mark. He's one of the people who run the FIA European Karting Championships." Lando says, putting his arm over my shoulder and pulling me into his chest while smiling.
"I heard you were in your local championship in England." Mark says, a small smile on his face.
"Yeah. I almost won as well." I say, looking up at him. He's a tall man, about 6 foot if I would guess. He's about the same height as Alex Albon.
"I'll tell you what, if you come here next Saturday at 10am, you can race in the local championship race. I can register you now, but you need your own kart by then." Mark says, grabbing his phone out of his pocket.
"Yes please." I say, a big smile coming across my face. I'm fighting every urge in my body not to jump up and down in excitement.
"Alright, it's sorted then. I'll just take some information now and then someone can sign the forms at the weekend." Mark states as I stand up straight and look at Charles with a smile on my face. I swear I notice a small smile but he quickly changes back to his pissed off face. He's like a robot sometimes.
"What's your full name?" Mark asks, looking at me.
"Emilie Leclerc." I say quietly. I can feel my cheeks burning with embarrassment. Charles probably thinks I'm weird for saying that my last name is Leclerc.
I glance at Charles and he smiles slightly, looking at me with kinder eyes than before.
"And when is your birthday?" Mark asks, keeping his eyes glued to his phone.
"18th of June 2009." I say, looking at the track. This is so boring, just let me go home already. Although I suppose being here and being bored is better than getting shouted at by Charles when we get home.
"Ok. That's all I need for now. Will it be you coming with her to the race?" Mark says, looking at Lando who looks over at Charles.
"I'll be coming with her." Charles says, taking a small step closer to us. Could he not even pretend to be at least the tiniest bit happier?
"Perfect. I'm Mark Campbell. If you come and find me when you get here, I can get you sorted and get all the paperwork signed." Mark states, typing on his phone quickly and smiling briefly at Charles.
"Ok. Thank you." Charles says, nodding his head slightly and returning the brief smile. "Come on then, let's go. What do you say to Mark?" He adds, looking at me and tapping my upper arm with the back of his hand.
"Thank you so much." I smile at Mark, struggling to contain my excitement.
"It's no problem. I'll see you in two weeks." Mark smiles before shaking Charles' and Lando's hands. He walks away and I unzip the top of my race suit, scraping my hair back so it's not in my face.
"You better have some good fucking excuses." Charles states, pulling my gloves and balaclava out of my hand and stuffing them into my helmet.
"I'm sorry." I mutter as I trail along behind him, looking down at the floor as I walk. Lando follows us out to the car park.
"Sorry isn't going to cut it. I told you no. What did you hear? Did you hear 'oh yeah of course you can go Em, it's no fucking problem. It's not like you just punched someone at school and got suspended for two weeks.'" Charles states, his voice getting slightly louder as he goes on.
I sigh loudly as we walk over to Charles' car which is parked next to Lando's, earning a glare from Charles.
"I'll see you at the weekend, kid." Lando says, as I try to open the car door.
"She's not going." Charles interrupts, grabbing the car keys out of his pocket and unlocking the car. "She's grounded." He adds, resting his arm on the top of his car.
"Well if I don't see you before the championship race, good luck. Remember to use the earpieces so you can talk to Charles during your race." Lando says, a small smile on his face. I nod my head and smile at him before opening the car door.
"Thanks. Good luck at the weekend. Be safe." I reply, getting into the car after Charles does. Lando shuts the car door after I'm in, and waves at me through the window as Charles starts the engine and drives out of the car park.