TWO

"Meeks!"

Moses Holt shouted as he spotted his friend leaving his garage which was of the Formula One team known as Porsche.

The American man ran quickly on his feet so that he could catch up to the reigning World Champion, having seen that he had not heard him shouting the nickname that he had for him.

"Yo! Bro!"

Moses lifted one of his hands up to grab a hold of the shoulder of his friend, making him release a scream in surprise, his body jumping upwards.

"ちくしょう！"

Mika Hayashi screamed as he jumped, his earphones falling out of his ears as he did so, turning around to see his friend standing next to him whilst trying not to laugh.

Mika didn't swear.

He was known as somebody who quite often scolded others if they swore and yet he had screamed like a child from fright and let a curse word leave his lips.

"Are you trying to kill me?"

Mika breathed, his breaths short as if he was trying to get some air back in to his lungs, his jet black hair having moved so that a lot of strands were now in front of his eyes.

He wasn't in his racing suit, instead he was in a black and white shirt that had a thick red line near the hemming at the bottom of the fabric, and a pair of grey jeans as well as some white trainers that he had received from a fan, of whom had personally painted the shoes with his favorite colors and designs.

"I thought that you couldn't hear me, sorry." Moses laughed, finding it amusing at just how loud and high pitched his friends scream had been.

"Yeah, I couldn't, that's the problem!" The Hayashi boy tried not to smile, but Moses had the ability of always being able to make him smile.

It was a shame that they were no longer team mates, but it was the best for both of them if they were at different teams.

When they were at the same team, they were both fighting for the title and if they were being honest, it was destroying their friendship and they didn't want that. Their friendship was great and they didn't want to ruin that so Moses knew that he had to change teams to save it.

It lost him the title and a championship winning car but it saved the most important thing to him, and that was Mika's friendship.

"How's Khal doing? Do you think she's gonna do alright in my old seat?" Moses smiled, using the nickname for the Syrian girl who had replaced him at Porsche.

Mika released a small sigh, understanding why Moses had come to talk to him.

He wanted to see if he was being replaced.

"She's going to be a great addition to the team, but I'll miss having you by my side." The Hayashi boy smiled, knowing that he could have moved to a different team, but Moses had chosen to sacrifice his chance at a title for him.

"I'll be seeing you in my mirrors though." The Japanese boy shot his best friend a wink, hearing the American erupt in to laughter.

"Oh it's on. I'll lose and it'll be really humiliating but it is on, brotha." The Holt man laughed, nudging his friends shoulder with his hand, making him stumble backwards.

He knew that in his current car, which was a Renault, that he would not stand a chance with his car in any way against his friend, but Mika was still his friend, that was all that mattered to him.

His team mate, Ugo Ugochukwu was rumored to be retiring in the next few years since he was thirty eight years old, but he understood why he had left Porsche.

It was a move that not many, if any, did in their sport and he had respected the sacrifice that Moses had made for his best friend.

"I'll be sure to wave from the podium."

"Bitch."

____________________________________________________

"Alex, I expect good things from you, okay? I know that this is only your first year so don't put too much pressure on yourself, but just know that I believe in you."

Nico Rosberg spoke in a firm but caring tone as he stared down at his newest driver, since he was the Team Principal at Mercedes in Formula One.

"Thanks, Uncle Nico."

Alexandra Hamilton smiled up at the German man who was her uncle, Godfather and boss with a smile that many adored even if they pretended like they didn't, since she was just happy to be there at one of the best teams in the whole sport.

"You already know your teammate, so I can let you get settled in and ready, if you would like?" Nico questioned, since he knew that the girl in front of him liked to have her own personal space and would sometimes dissappear for long periods of time just so that she could spend some time by herself.

"I'd like for you to be here when my dad arrives, which should be any minute, because I know that he's bringing you some food." Alex raised one of her dark eyebrows, analysing the face of the blonde German man in front of her.

Nico's eyes widened in surprise, which was then followed by the rumbling sound of his hungry stomach.

Her black hair had been braided tightly in to corn rows, because whilst most of the time she had her hair curly and loose or in an afro style, she had needed it out of her face ready for her first practise season at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The British girl watched with a soft smile upon her glowing face as she noticed her father, Sir Lewis Hamilton, arriving in to her garage with a paper bag in his right hand which he had filled with food for both himself and his best friend, Nico.

The father and daughter duo shot each other a double wink in greeting, otherwise known as a strong blink because Alex had been unable to wink until she was a teenager, just like they always did and had done ever since she was a young child.

"Kimi would like me to pass on the message of good luck because I just passed him on my way here."

Lewis Hamilton spoke to his teenage daughter, of whom was barely eighteen years old, noticing her nodding her head a couple of times in response to his words, with her obviously trying to get herself in 'the zone' as she always called it.

Kimi as Lewis had said, was in fact, Kimi Antonelli, a very well known formula one driver who had been in Mercedes for quite a while.

In fact, he had been the person to replace the late great Larissa Cohen when she had been killed on the track, so he had been in the sport for a long time now.

She was surrounded by three legends of the sport that she was competing in and she knew that she would never complain about it.

She wanted to become just like one of those legends. More specifically, her father.

"Any advice from my two favorite people?" The young Hamilton girl smiled sheepishly at her father and uncle, her eyes sparkling, hoping for a little bit of a pep talk from them since the pair always gave her good advice.

Except for when her Uncle Nico advised her that she should speak German in English interviews. That hadn't gone down well.

"Don't crash in to your teammate."

The former racing pair had said in unison, making the girl nod her head up and down slowly, wondering what it was that they would say next since she knew from experience that with them, it could have been anything.

"Don't crash in to the barriers either, oh and please don't do what your uncle Valtteri did and go bowling." Lewis lifted one of his hands up so that he could point at his daughter, attempting to be stern with her.

"Not even if it helps Kimi?" Alex questioned mischievously.

"Not even if it helps Kimi." Lewis deadpanned.

"Well-"

"No."

The five time world Champion that Lewis was turned abruptly at the sound of the voice of the Rosberg man, pointing his finger at him in warning, knowing what he had been thinking.

"The world can't go through another Brocedes divorce guys, please!" Alexandra laughed, having known from talking to her aunts and uncles about the drama between them long before she was born.

"You really need to stop talking about us to your uncle Nando."

____________________________________________________

"I'm sweating my ass off, oh my days."

Lani Keahi groaned in discomfort as she felt the sticky substance of sweat dripping all over her small body.

Her dark brown hair was tied back in to a messy bun of sorts, though she had a lot of hair that was also really thick so it was very hard to hold all of it back and away from her skin since she didn't want her hair to stick to her tanned skin.

Her face was scrunched up as she tried to subtly move her shirt around, of which she always wore when she was doing a workout, trying to make sure that people could not see her wrestling to try and dry herself off.

"Your teammate will be here any second, please try to not look like you're rubbing your breasts."

Akamu Keahi lightly scolded her daughter with raised eyebrows, her black hair hanging down her back tightly in two Dutch braids, with the woman wearing a pair of shorts and a cropped top in order to stay cool in the blistering heat of the desert.

"Kaikamahine, your friend is filming you."

Aleki Keahi let out a chuckle towards his daughter as his dark eyes fell upon the figure of the best friend of his daughter, the trio turning around to see the very familiar face of Larissa Ocon filming Lani with her phone.

"Looking great, sweetie!"

Larissa Ocon shouted loudly towards one of her best friends, seeing the face of the Hawaiian girl fill with her usual bright smile which always made her happy.

"Looking great, gorgeous!"

Lani shouted back at her best friend, not caring who were watching their interaction since it was a regular occurrence between herself and her French best friend.

"Looking sweaty, tiny!"

Lani jumped as she heard the very distinct voice of her team mate directly behind her, with the five foot one girl practically jumping out of her skin to turn around to face the beaming shit-eating grin of Kojo Miles.

"That is so not fair! How long have you been standing there?" Lani furrowed her eyebrows together as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, face in a light glare without realising it.

"Since you complained about sweating your ass off, can't say that it didn't take me by surprise."

Kojo Miles laughed, a slight smirk upon his face as he found the look of embarrassment incredibly funny. If he was being honest she reminded him of how Massa had been when she had first joined Formula One.

He loved to tease and bully the rookies no matter what team they were driving for, and he knew that Erik and Kimi were very similar in that sense too.

It wasn't harsh or mean bullying, of course, just the playful and innocent kind that didn't upset anyone.

"You're not gonna judge me for it, are you?"

"I'll always judge you, just maybe a little bit more for that." Kojo laughed, wanting to seem like he was a friendly and approachable team mate that she could always approach if she needed somebody to talk to or go to for advice.

"My daughter is a great driver, she has great results but she struggles with the cameras and the flashing lights." Aleki spoke as he stepped forward towards his daughters team mate since it was the first time that he was meeting him, seeing the Miles man nod his head as he listened.

"I can't say that I relate, but Fetu definitely will. But what I will tell you, is that your results in Formula Two mean nothing here. It's completely different and so much more difficult. If you don't succeed, it's not necessarily meaning that you're a bad driver, sometimes you might just be better off in a different series."

The Keahi family were very surprised by how wise Kojo seemed to be. The media portrayed him as a party boy, who only cared about winning, alcohol and women but clearly that was very wrong.

"Thank you, that actually is surprisingly helpful."

"What can I say? I've got at least one working brain cell."

Lani giggled at her team mate, finding him funny even when he didn't try to be. She was always nervous around him ever since the first time that she had met him, but she figured that was because he was a very good and very experienced driver.

"Together, you might make it to three." Akamu smirked at the teammate of her daughter, noticing how he pretended to be offended.

"Are you saying that she's got two brain cells? How rude!" Kojo gasped, placing his hand on to the area of his chest where his heart was.

"She took her fathers brain."

"Woah, let's not insult our daughter!"

"She hasn't got the charm that I have, but she's definitely got the knowledge. I'd say she has at least three brain cells, maybe three and a half." Kojo playfully winked at his team mate, seeing her grin at how he complimented her.

"Oh you're so generous, thank you so much." Lani giggled, rolling her eyes lightly, her cheeks tinged pink.

"Wait, Lani has brain cells?"

Larissa Ocon smirked as she walked her way in to their conversation, which she always tended to do even if she had no part in the conversation.

The Keahi girl released a dramatic gasp as she too pretended to be offended, though she was used to Larissa and her jokes. They had been close in Formula Two so naturally, they were getting along together in Formula One.

Everybody liked Lani, she was too kind and cute for people to not like her, Larissa on the other hand was a bit like marmite.

She was sarcastic, snarky, blunt and honest, she was supportive to her friends but if she didn't like somebody, it was very obvious.

If she was being honest, she didn't like Adrián who drove for Ferrari. She thought that he was a dick.

"Pea brain, you don't get to be bragging about your car when you're the one driving it. You actually have to be good, to succeed." Larissa smirked, watching Kojo immediately laugh at her words.

"You haven't changed a bit." The Miles man shook his head from side to side, fistbumping the girl who had been the reserve driver for Mclaren last season.

"And you're still rubbish."

Akamu and Aleki Keahi wrapped their arms around the frame of the Ocon girl, having always loved it when she would spend time with their daughter since they always got along well with one another.

It had been strange last season in Formula Two when Larissa hadn't been there, but she had reserve driver duties in Formula One so she couldn't race with Lani, despite wanting to.

Larissa and Kojo had been almost like siblings during the last season, bickering ones who only got on well with one another and friendly when there was something in it for them.

During the winter break though, Larissa had spent most of her time with either Lani or the Leclerc-Cohen twins who she had known since the three of them were children.

"I can't wait to see you be carried this season by Ollie." Kojo wiggled his eyebrows at the girl, watching as she leant her head back to sarcastically laugh, her hands giving him a very slow round of applause.

Ollie, or Ollie Bearman as most people knew him as, was Larissa's teammate for her first formula one season, with the pair driving for the team of Lotus.

They were also incredibly lucky to have the one and only Michael Schumacher as their team principal, and he had been very nice and accepting of Larissa as she joined his team.

Since recovering from his skiing accident in two thousand and thirteen, Michael had been very determined to make up for lost time, watching all of his son's Formula One races when he been racing, but since Mick had retired, he was now supporting his grandson Michel, and managing his own team.

"Immy wished us luck by the way, she says that her parents want us to kick ass." Lani spoke up after a couple of minutes of silence, mentioning the friend that they both knew from Formula Two.

Imogen Lizzie Russell was the daughter of former Formula One driver George Russell and his wife, Jazmin, and the three of them had always supported the group that was Risette, Jules, Larissa and Lani.

There was a competitive rivalry between Imogen and Elisabeth Norris and there always had been, primarily due to the rivalry between their fathers and yet Elisabeth had entered Formula One first, and Imogen was stuck with cars that always failed mechanically.

"Well let her know that we will, and in return, she has to win."

Lani nodded her head up and down a couple of times as she typed away on her phone, her tongue slightly sticking out of her mouth which it often subconsciously did when she was concentrating, sending the message and waiting only moments for a response.

"She says that she has a DNS."

"Of course she does."

____________________________________________________

"Crumbling under the pressure?"

Dembe Adebayo asked in a rough sounding voice as he found himself stopping in his tracks having seen his new teammate crouched down with her hands covering her ears.

It may have sounded mean, but Dembe was waiting for her to crumble so that the seat could be offered to somebody else who he thought deserved it more.

"No, of course not, I'm just nervous."

Risette Renée Leclerc-Cohen muttered as she pushed her hands against her ears, trying to block out some sounds that she found painful to her ears.

"You've qualified in twenty first by the way, since you ran away before you could see your time." Dembe huffed, rolling the dark brown of his eyes in distaste.

"Thank you." Her voice cracked slightly as she spoke, trying not to make herself seem weak in front of the Nigerian man.

What a lot of people didn't know about her, was that she often tended to have something called sensory overloads. Everything tended to get a little bit too much and a little bit too overwhelming quite quickly for her to cope with so she tended to try and sit by herself with her hands over her ears in an attempt and stabilise herself.

Either that or she would just sit next to her father or her uncle Arthur, sometimes her uncle Lorenzo but he was not often around when she suffered from the sensory overloads.

"You need some water, rookie?"

The Adebayo man furrowed his eyebrows together as he watched her closely, the smallest hints of worry appearing in his chest for her.

In spite of that, he chose to not get any closer to her since he did not like intruding on people's personal space, well that and he liked his own space protected.

Risette shook her head from side to side at his words, her face scrunched up in discomfort as his voice was not helping her to stabilise herself, hoping that he would just keep on walking and leave her alone.

Her teammate took the hint and walked away, leaving her alone as she whimpered slightly, the screams of fans and the sounds of the cars making a sharp stabbing pain appear in her head.

It didn't always happen, and it wasn't like she didn't love racing and Formula One, because she did, but when the pressure was high and she was stressed, on edge and panicking, the very thing that was her favorite, became her nightmare.

She occasionally suffered nightmares and night terrors in the run up to races since she was stressed that she would become overwhelmed, even having gone as far as climbing in to her car only to abandon it and lock herself away and recieve a DNS to her name and to her record.

Her brother Jules, he understood.

He tried to keep his distance during races unless it was to congratulate her but sometimes he felt like not being up to race, either due to illness or his feelings of excessive stress and nervousness.

He wouldn't have called it anxiety, but it wasn't far off from that.

So when he saw his twin sister frantically tugging at her fireproofs, almost pulling them apart whilst trying to get them off her skin so that she could feel less trapped and recieve more air, he didn't judge her or criticise her or anything.

Instead, when they went to the house that they shared with their father, he would silently put her favorite movie on the television, grab some popcorn and a blanket and hug his sister just so that she knew that she was not alone.

And she never would be.

The many booming sounds were suddenly blocked out from her ears, with the pain and overwhelming feeling easing, which made the Brazilian girl lift her young head up rather abruptly, her dark brown eyes seeing a very familiar face crouching in front of her with a bottle of water in one hand and whilst their other hand was held up in a thumbs up motion.

Tio Arthur.

____________________________________________________

A/N

Chapter 2 is here, what do you think?

Who's your favorite so far? I posted the driver lineup too so let me know what your thoughts are on that!

Risette is on the autism spectrum for those who are wondering. She wouldn't be classed as autistic by a doctor but she is on the spectrum and she had a lot of tendencies which is both her strong point and her weakness, we'll see more of that soon.

Anyway, I hope that you all enoy this chapter and I'll see you all soon for the next one,

I'm so proud of all of you, my love

Love you all,

-RUBY 🇵🇸🇨🇩