ONE

"Dakila, come on! You're going to be late!"

Tala Villanueva shouted to her brother from near the front door, hearing the shuffling of her brothers feet in and around his bedroom.

"I can't find my phone!"

Her brother yelled back, as he frantically ran through his bedroom, throwing his belongings out of the way in the search of his phone, which he seemed to have lost.

"I'll call it." Tala spoke, now stood next to him in his bedroom.

"It's on silent." Dakila Villanueva shook his head, hearing his sisters groan of annoyance.

"Tanga!"

Tala slapped her brother around the back of his head, before glancing down to check her watch. "Leave without it, you won't make it in time if you keep looking."

Dakila sighed in defeat before nodding his head sadly, as he grabbed his keys and his bag before wrapping his arm around his sisters shoulder and leading the both of them towards the car.

As soon as they sat in the car and fastened their seat belts, Dakila's eyes widened at the sight before him.

His phone.

"You had my phone the whole time?"

Tala shrugged her shoulders nonchantly. "You took my car keys, I got payback."

Dakila released a laugh, a bright smile flooding his features as he stared at his sister. "Indeed you did."

The siblings soon arrived at their location, clambering out of the car and grabbed their bags, heading towards their friends who were waving them over.

"The Villanueva's have arrived!"

"Hey Lance, good to see you too." Tala laughed as the Canadian greeted the siblings, hugging the slighter older sibling before greeting her.

"Hey, Tally. Are you going to be our good luck charm again?" Lance Stroll smiled softly at the Filipino girl.

"You bet that I am." Tala winked at him, seeing him immediately burst in to laughter.

Dakila Villanueva was driving in Formula Three for a team called Prema Powerteam, and so naturally, his younger sister bonded with his team mates.

Lance Stroll became like a best friend to her, where the pair would almost always be seen laughing and joking around each other.

That was, until Dakila noticed his rival, and friend watching his sister in the distance.

"Russell! Get your ass over here!"

Tala frowned in confusion as she looked at her brother with a questioning look.

Why was his rival George Russell on his way over to them, from his invitation?

"Hey, Dak." George smiled at his friend and current rival, giving the boy a pat on the back and a hug.

"Meet my sister, Tala."

Tala turned to face the Russell boy at the sound of her name and found him smiling at her, his hand outstretched towards her.

"I'm George."

"I'm Tala, the better sibling."

George chuckled at her choice of words for an introduction, and out the corner of his eye, he noticed the confused look that her brother was giving her.

"Who lied to you, Tal?" Dakila couldn't hold back a smile any longer, making his sister roll her eyes.

"Whose still got your phone?" Tala smirked as she lifted her brothers phone out from her pocket and waved it around, seeing her brothers face drain of color.

"No, no, please." Dakila begged, though it was no use.

Tala handed the phone to Lance, seeing the Canadian's face light up with joy, before he took of running with the phone tightly in his grasp, causing the Filipino boy to chase after his friend.

George glanced to the other drivers and friends of the siblings and smiled at them. "So who really is the better sibling?"

"Tala." Antonio Giovinazzi spoke instantly to his team mate.

"Definitely Tal." Callum Ilott agreed.

"What they said." Alex Albon and Charles Leclerc piped up, agreeing with the other two drivers.

"Don't act so surprised Georgie." Tala grinned as she noticed the surprise on his face from her using a nickname for him.

"If you don't already, you'll love me soon enough."

The group could only laugh as they heard screams in the distance.

"LANCE!"

"GLORY TO CANADA! AHHH!"

____________________________________________________

"Tala, you do realise that you're burning the food, right?"

Tala immediately snapped out of her trance, glancing down to see the chicken that she was cooking was now a dark brown color.

She felt a large hand on her arm, making her jump from surprise, burning her hand on the hot frying pan in front of her.

"Kasalanan mo ang lahat ng ito!"

Tala yelled, using her other hand to immediately clutch her injured wrist, feeling the pain surge through her hand.

"I'm so sorry." George Russell apologised as he attempted to help his best friend, feeling guilty at having made her jump.

He knew that she had been lost in her thoughts, remembering the good times, presumably thinking about her brother, Dakila, like she always did when she was by herself.

It had been almost five and a half years since her brother had been killed in a race, in the 2017 GP3 series and he still felt awful.

He still felt the guilt within him, knowing that he had been the one to cause the crash, since he had spun and collided with Dakila's car, causing it to flip upside down.

Whereas now, there was Halo's in the cars, back then the Halo didn't exist meaning that Dakila was killed almost as soon as his car flipped, his helmet not being strong enough to protect his brain from severe damage.

He was injured himself, of course, but he didnt care about that. To him, his injuries were minor, whereas one of his best friend's had been killed by him.

He had killed the brother of his best friend.

Everything had changed since that day.

The apartment that the siblings shared, was long gone, since all it did was remind the younger Villanueva sibling of her loss.

She ended up moving in with the Russell boy, because she had nowhere else to go on such short notice, since the day that her brother died, she had immediately decided that she wasn't going back.

He was happy to have her, but the guilt was eating through him as every single day passed, wondering if she hated him.

It didn't help that she would lock herself away in her room, barely leaving the place unless George forced her to come out, either for food or for a small amount of socialising with their friends.

She felt guilty, blaming herself for her brothers death, since it was his only race that she didn't attend, since she was at a job interview, and upon arriving at the race track after the race, discovered the horrifying truth.

Her brother was dead.

He died alone.

She felt guilty, feeling as if it was a curse, as if she was cursed.

So she locked herself away, distancing herself as much as she could from her friends, in fear of anything happening to them because she was cursed.

She appreciated the effort that George put in to help her, dragging her out to see her friends, but she couldn't be around them.

She loved them, but she couldn't put them in danger.

So she became a shell of the person that she once was.

And it broke George's heart.