Being back home was strange, she had to get used to the silence again, because if there's one thing you'll not get at a Grand Prix it is silence. Even her colleagues were worried about here, because she was more distant than ever. She kept thinking about how much fun the weekend had been and how she enjoyed spending so much time with Seb, although he had been very busy of course. Also to be around other people, engage in conversations, laugh at jokes was something she didn't do much nowadays. She cursed David for turning her into who she was right now and she fought hard to not let him influence her life anymore. She wanted to break free from it all, be the person she wanted to be and not the person other people wanted her to be.
She was searching the internet for pictures of this weekend, so that she would have proof of the memories at least. It was beneficial that there were so many professional photographers in the paddock, because there were loads of good pictures to choose from. She even found some pictures of herself in the Red Bull garage, talking to one of the mechanics. It surprised her how happy she looked, as she normally only saw herself in the mirror. She looked a bit thinner that she remembered, but at least the girl in the photos seemed to enjoy herself. Witch a click of the mouse she saved the pictures and went on to find other pictures which were worth saving. Afterwards she would send them to her friends, she thought they would like that.
When she opened her email her eye fell on a new message she clearly had missed before. It said Red Bull in the address and she was curious what it could be, because she didn't remember signing up for any of their mailing lists. Without thinking much of it she clicked on the email to open it and started to read. After each sentence her eyes got wider and wider and in the end she had put her hand over her mouth, not believing what she was reading. This was too good to be true and she didn't understand why she was given this opportunity. She read the email again and it really said Christian Horner at the bottom of her screen. She hadn't spoken to him this weekend other than Seb introducing her and him wishing her to enjoy the weekend. Then suddenly she put two and two together and she knew who was responsible for this, because who else could it be?
With trembling hands she picked up her phone and dialled his number, she needed to speak to him to see if this was really legit.
'I was waiting for your call,' Seb grinned when he answered his phone.
'What have you done?' was the only think she could think of to yell at her phone.
A chuckle was audible from the other side of the line. 'I think you at least deserved this chance,' he said while trying not to laugh at her disbelief.
'I don't know what I did to deserve this, it's such a huge opportunity,' she said still in awe and she closed the laptop that was standing in front of her on the kitchen table.
'Being awesome,' Seb grinned. 'On a serious note, you seemed so happy when you were in the garage this weekend and you couldn't shut up asking me about the failures on my car. I haven't seen you so happy since, eh, ever I think. That's why I arranged this when I found out this position was opening up.' He clearly was chuffed with himself as he explained his reasons.
'I don't even know how to thank you. I know it's just an interview, but that's the furthest I got so far while searching for a job,' she said gratefully. With her phone still held to her ear she stood up and filled up her glass with water.
'Don't be too worried about that interview, you'll get through that with flying colours.'
Sitting down again and pulling the biscuit tin towards her she sighed. 'I'm not so sure about that, I have zero experience in this field,' she said while putting one of her homemade carrot cake biscuits in her mouth.
'The most important thing is motivation, experience will come over time and there are enough people to help you along,' he said trying to reassure her.
Chewing on her biscuit she thought about his words. 'Do you really think so?' she asked hesitantly.
'I also put a word in for you, so they will need a good reason not to hire you,' he chuckled.
'Thanks,' she said and realised that it sometimes was quite useful to have someone with high influence as her friend. Not that she wanted to be hired just because he asked, she wanted to be hired for her skills and knowledge, but if he could give that little push that was great.
'That's what you do for friends, right?' he said and it sounded genuine.
'I could never do something like this back for you,' she said uneasily. That was the other side of the story, he had all the influence and could make things happen, she however could not.
'Don't worry, you wanting to spend time with me is enough,' he grinned. 'You're one of the only persons who treat me as normal and you can't imagine how thankful I am for that,' he added on a more serious note.
She grabbed another biscuit from the tin and grinned. 'I can refer to you as champ in the future if you like,' she said seriously, but it was hard to not start laughing.
'Please don't,' he exclaimed quickly and his voice sounded unsettled.
'Just joking,' she chuckled. 'Champ,' she muttered under her breath however.
Seb groaned and he cursed in German, forgetting she was able to understand him. 'Please ignore that,' he said when he realised his mistake.
'Next time I'll make you eat soap to wash that dirty mouth of yours,' she laughed and she almost spat out her biscuit.
'I can say things that are a lot dirtier,' he chuckled.
'Try me,' she answered. She wasn't sure if it was innocent what he said or that it was meant to be cheeky. She couldn't see his face, so she really had no clue which of the two it was. It still made her blush though and she was happy that Seb couldn't see her face.
'Challenge accepted,' he said seriously.
There suddenly was a lot of noise in the background and she could hear him put his hand over the microphone and talk to someone else. His voice was muffled so she couldn't hear what he said and she used that time to eat another biscuit.
'I'm sorry about that, but I have to go,' he said when he returned to their conversation.
'Oh, OK,' she answered and wished secretly that he would keep talking to her for the rest of the day. Of course she knew he was busy and his time was precious, so she didn't want to be egoistic.
'Don't worry about the interview, I mean it. Just prepare and you'll do fine,' he reassured her another time.
She smiled, he was always able to make her feel better. 'Thanks,' she replied.
After they said their goodbyes she put her phone back on the table. She was a lot calmer than she had been at the start of their conversation, but she was still nervous as hell. The interview was already in a couple of days and she still needed to arrange a lot of things. However they could all wait, it was time to calm her nerves with baking a large cake.
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She had taken a taxi from the hotel to the factory and she was now standing in front of the impressive building. One of their Formula 1 cars was hanging on the walls she saw when she looked through the glass wall. With a deep breath she took a step forward and went through the glass doors. The wall with trophies then quickly grabbed her attention and she could only stare up at the large cabinet. Almost ever trophy had Seb's name on it and it was an impressive sight for everyone who entered the factory. She could imagine that it motivated you massively when you came through those doors ready for work.
Feeling a bit nervous she made her way to the reception where a cheerful blonde woman was sitting talking to someone on the phone. She quickly smoothened her skirt and checked if her blazer still had no wrinkles in it. When she was sure she looked decent and the woman was off the phone she introduced herself.
'Hi, I'm Keira O'Donnell. I'm her for a job interview with Christian Horner at two o'clock,' she said smiling at the petite blonde.
'Hi, welcome at Red Bull Racing,' the girl said happily. 'I'll call someone to get you up to his office. You can sit there to wait. Good luck!' she pointed at one of the sofas and with a broad smile picked up the phone again to call one of her colleagues.
Keira followed her instruction and sat down, looking nervously around her. Everything seemed big, but also well organised, exactly how she had expected it to be. People were walking around in Red Bull gear and it all felt a bit surreal, she couldn't believe she was here in the factory of a championship winning team. Also everyone seemed so nice, a lot of people said hello to her when walking by and she wasn't used to an environment like this.
'Miss O'Donnell?' another woman asked when she walked up to Keira.
'Yes, that's me,' she quickly replied and stood up to shake the woman's hand.
'Hi, I'm Kate and I'll bring you to Christian right now. Follow me,' she gestured and they made their way to the lifts.
It all looked like a maze, there were so many corridors and corners that she would easily get lost if she hadn't been accompanied by someone. She tried to peek inside each room and area where she walked past and saw that there were way more people working on making this team successful than she had thought. Everyone seemed serious about their jobs, but she could also see a lot of people talking animatedly amongst each other.
'Here we are. Just go inside, he's waiting for you,' Kate said and she opened the door for Keira to enter. 'Good luck, we need more girls in the team,' she grinned and she gave Keira a thumbs up.
Feeling a bit nauseous she smiled at Kate and made her way inside the room. It wasn't that large, but at least it was very light. There were a lot of windows and the walls were white, what made the room look bigger than it really was. The desk was full with papers and other stuff and it was clear that the team principal had a lot of areas to keep an eye on.
'Hi, I'm Christian Horner. Sit down please,' a male voice said from behind the desk.
Too nervous to reply she sat down in the chair Christian pointed at and it was right in front of his desk. Not wanting to make a bad impression she straightened her back and put her hands folded on her lap, waiting for him to continue.
'You're here for the job of Performance Engineer,' he said and he fiddled with his papers to find the one he was looking for. 'Ah, here it is,' he said when he had finally found the right paper.
'That's right,' she answered and she stared at one of the pictures on his desk, not wanting to look at his face.
'As I have written in the email it is for Sebastian's side of the garage and it is a bit of a combination job. Your main job is to focus on the performance of the car, but when we are short handed we would like you to jump in to work on the car itself. Is that a problem at all?' Christian asked and he had pushed his fingers against each other.
'No, not at all. I like to get my hands dirty and I like to get experience in different areas,' she quickly replied. This was even better, she had been afraid that she would not be allowed to touch a car, but this was the best of both worlds.
'I have your resume right here, it all looks good. Seb was right, your record is impressive,' he said and he smiled when he looked up at Keira. 'Now I would like to hear you motivation. Why do you want to work here at Red Bull?'
This was something she had prepared for and she breathed a sigh of relief. Seb had told her what she could expect and he had been right with this one. Trying to remember what exactly she had prepared she told Christian about her interest in engineering from a young age and what she thought about Red Bull as a company. Christian nodded appreciatively she noticed and she hoped that that was a good thing.
'Then there are a few other things to discuss. This job requires you to be at the race tracks whenever necessary, so that means a lot of time away from home. Also between races you are needed at the factory for analysis, preparing for the next race, working on the car or other work related things. Therefore you have to be flexible in your schedule and a lot of commitment is necessary. I hope you have given that a lot of thought,' Christian said looking serious and he wrote something down on one of the papers.
'I understand that and I have no commitments at home, I can be wherever you want me to be,' she answered and she hoped that was what he wanted to hear. She finally started to feel less nervous and she was getting excited about the job. It didn't seem real at all when she had been back home, but now she was sitting in the team principal's office it was finally sinking in.
'Your flights, accommodation and other basic needs will be covered by the team, so you don't have to worry about that. You'll get a set of team gear and you are expected to bring them clean and washed to the races and wear them whenever you're representing Red Bull,' he summed up matter of factly and he ignored his phone which had started ringing.
It sounded almost too good to be true, everything would be arranged for her and it almost sounded like a holiday, only better. Normally she had to pay for her own holidays and book everything herself, here it was done for her.
'If you have any other questions please ask me or Sebastian, we are all happy to help,' Christian smiled and he put a set of papers on one of the largest pile. 'Consider yourself hired,' he added with a grin and he leaned back in his chair.
'I am?' she said in surprise, not expecting to hear his decision this soon.
'Welcome to Red Bull Racing,' he said as he stood up. He held out his hand and smiled when Keira shook it. 'I hope you'll enjoy your time working on the team.'
She thanked him profusely after she had given him all her information that he needed and almost messed up her signature on the contract. Her hand was trembling because she was so excited and she almost knocked over a pile of important looking papers on Christian's desk. After all the formalities were done he showed her the way to the canteen and told her someone would show her around the factory later on. Also he provided the information where she could pick up her team gear and apply for a paddock pass. She only took in half of the information and was glad that he also gave her a sheet where everything was written down on.
When she had made her way to the canteen after only getting lost twice she felt a bit out of place in her normal clothing. She picked up a tray and walked along the buffet to choose something for lunch. Her stomach was rumbling as she had been too nervous to eat before the interview and now it was already way past lunch time. After being indecisive she chose the pasta of the day in the end and put her tray on one of the empty tables. There were only a few other people sitting in the canteen and it looked like they also had run late. Not knowing if she was allowed to make a call in her she sent Seb a text to tell him about her interview.
Keira - Got the job!!!
She grinned and she knew Seb wouldn't be surprised as he had told her at least a thousand times that she didn't need to worry. Even when he had brought her to the airport he had kept reassuring her. She was looking forward to going back home and tell him all about it, although it was a rather boring story. She knew he wouldn't mind and that was what was so great about him. However she was staying here for a few days to get to know the team and to be introduced to her job. With a sigh she started to eat her pasta, dreaming about how lucky she was right now.
'Hey,' a voice said behind her.
It made her almost choke on her pasta and her eyes widened when she turned around and spotted who it was.