SYDNEY, MARCH 4

"Hi, guys! I'm Avery Forrester and this is a— what was it— a get ready with me video? My best friend Em here says I need to use social media more, so I'll be talking while I do my everyday makeup." She introduced herself, turning around in her chair to watch Emilie Rhodes giggling from where she was sprawled out on Avery's bed.

Avery then grabbed her phone, holding it up so Emilie was seen on the video. She set the phone back down with a small shake of her head, picking up her primer to start her routine. The whole thing felt unnatural to her, but not starting the video over would come across as more authentic. At the time that she was recording, she had a grand total of seven followers: her two flatmates, two siblings, and a couple cast mates who always forced her into their videos while on set. Her account had been private since she made it three years prior, the username being a string of numbers that she never bothered to change before then.

"A little bit about me: I'm from Brisbane, Australia but split my time between there and Sydney mostly while filming projects. I have two younger siblings— Natalie is in the United States studying at USC, and Mason is finishing up senior secondary this year. I nearly dropped out of my first year of uni when I booked a main role on Netflix, but somehow I made it through and earned my bachelor's in marketing last May! I actually missed my graduation to be on said Netflix show." Emilie's snort of laughter could be heard from where Avery sat.

"I'm an actress, most recently you may have seen me on Heartbreak High as Isabelle Gallagher. Season two is on the way soon so keep your eyes peeled for that! But I've also been on shows like Dance Academy, and The Wilds in smaller roles."

She reached for her concealer bottle and drew tiny lines on her face while refocusing her train of thought. Videos could be up to ten minutes according to Emilie who had been coaching her before she hit record, but nobody would ever watch something that long so she decided to switch gears and get on with her story.

"But today, get ready with me while I talk about the time my boyfriend of ten months ghosted me to go on Love Island!" Avery clasped her hands together, going silent for a moment to prepare herself for the story to come.

"You know what, I'll even name drop him because he's an asshole for going on a dating show without breaking up with me first! Will I regret posting this video? Maybe. But if my misfortune gives someone a laugh, it'll be worth it to me. Anyways, Jack Abbott, you're a fucking coward!"

She pointed her blending brush at her phone accusingly before starting to blend out the makeup on her face.

"I started dating Jack at the end of January last year, for about ten months before he went radio silent. I thought maybe he was stressed with work, or something came up with family or his friends that was keeping him busy. But a couple of days passed, and it was very out of character for him not to call or text even a quick hi. Then a week went by, and I decided I'd swing by his flat and see what was going on." Avery paused. "Sorry, I keep forgetting to talk about the makeup products I'm using! I'll put all the names in the description whenever I post this video, if I actually do. This is the Saie blush in the shade dreamy. I love using blush, though I don't normally need too much of it because I like to surf sometimes and I get sunburnt very easily."

"So, anyways! One of his flatmated let me in their place, sitting me down to say that he had left the week before for filming. Now Jack wasn't an actor, so that threw me for a loop. Apparently he was going to film Love Island, which after turning on my television later in the month, sure enough there he was! As soon as I found out, I broke up with him. Not that he'd see it right then, since they don't have their personal phones when filming. But if he went on Love Island, then obviously he didn't see a future with me. I didn't want to waste my time on someone who isn't truly interested."

"Also this is not sponsored, but my sister Natalie mails me Celsius energy drinks from the States because we don't have them here in Australia yet— this is called the Peach Vibe? I had one when I visited her a couple years ago, and have been obsessed with them since. So Celsius if you see this, please bring these here!"

She waved the can around in the frame of the video momentarily before taking a sip. It didn't always taste the greatest, but helped greatly on long days of filming. Or to give her the energy to get through the most random tasks, like what she was doing then.

"This happened back in December, and it's March now. Honestly I still can't believe that all of this happened, but I can laugh about it now! I definitely have my best friends and flatmates to thank for getting me through that— Han, Em get in the video!" She wrapped her arms around Hannah Yardley and Emilie, squishing them into the frame of the video with a giant grin on her face. "We might've had a few too many wine nights with us making fun of rom-coms like Elle Woods did post heartbreak in Legally Blonde, but I love these two to death and they're stuck with me forever. Whether they like it or not."

"But other than this story, I feel like I'm really pretty boring honestly. Sometimes I also think that I'm turning into my gram at the age of 23 because I'm so shit at using social media. So to the ten people that will see this other than my friends and family, don't expect me to be posting too much on here. But we'll see, you never know!"

Avery waved to the camera for a second before reaching to turn the video off, the smile dropping off her face almost instantly. She turned to look at Hannah and Emilie tiredly, shaking her head twice. As an actor she liked slipping into the personality of other people, to be seen as someone other than herself. But giving details into her personal life had never been something she was too good at, and maybe this was a decent starting point by just throwing herself in head first and oversharing to the world. But before she could overthink it, she tapped her thumb on the post video button.

"Why do I feel like I'm going to regret posting this?" Avery asked her friends, watching as it loaded onto her now public profile.

"It's your first video, I doubt anyone will even see it." Hannah reassured her.

JEDDAH, MARCH 6

Lando Norris lay sprawled across a couch in McLaren hospitality, scrolling through Tiktok before he and his teammate were to go participate in media day activities ahead of the race weekend. He had zoned out partway through a video but the words "boyfriend ghosted me to go on Love Island" broke him out of his haze. As a Brit he was no stranger to the show, but the accent from the girl talking sounded closer to that of his teammate than to his own. The video was posted two days ago, and had nearly five million views already.

He typed out, "ouch, that's rough" where it got lost in the other thousand opinions and laughing emojis sprinkled through the comment section. Apparently her ex had already deactivated his Twitter since the video went up, and went private on Instagram not long after according to the couple comments he had laughed at. The girl kept talking as he scrolled, her accent still bugging him until the video restarted and confirmed she lives in Australia.

Sure enough, Oscar Piastri walked through the door just seconds later to join him.

"Do you guys have Love Island in Australia?" Lando wondered, taking his eyes off his phone screen to look at Oscar. "We have it in the UK, and the US has it too I think."

The other driver shrugged. "Yeah, I think so. Why?"

"No reason."

Oscar's eyes narrowed as he studied Lando closely, but he was already scrolling past the video made by the redheaded Australian girl with unfortunate luck without another thought.

( gif by bIoodbenders )

Delaney's Rambles!

Why it took me so long to write this, I have no idea. I always think that the introduction or first chapter, whatever you want to call it, is the hardest and actually like freaks me out so badly hitting post. I'll likely go through and re-edit later, but it is what is it! I'm still trying to learn Australian slang for this hahaha, so it may be sparse for now