THREE

"Have you eaten?"

Precious Anderson asked her only child, her daughter, as the young woman entered the family home with multiple bags which were full with groceries.

"I had a piece of bread, so yes I have." Makena Kamara-Anderson spoke to her mother as the woman held the door open for her, allowing her to carry the bags all the way in to the kitchen.

"That's not an adequate amount of food." Precious scolded her daughter who rolled her eyes in response.

"And I don't an adequate amount of fucks to give." Makena snarked at her mother, who raised an eyebrow at her daughter.

It was almost, as if she remembered that she was not at the Mclaren garage, and that to be rude or sarcastic at her African mother, was basically a death sentence.

"I should apologise, shouldn't I?"

Precious slowly nodded her head as she stared down her daughter, like a lioness staring down her prey.

"Sorry." Makena smiled timidly, as she placed the shopping bags down on the table so that she could be prepared to run for her life.

"I should wash your mouth out with soap." Precious raised a finger to point at her daughter.

"It's not like I was swearing, mama." Makena grimaced as soon as the words left her lips, because she knew all too well that she was going to be punished by her mother.

Rule number one in an African household, is you do not talk back to your parents.

If you do, you might end up with bruises that last for weeks on end due to how hard you were punished.

That was what, Makena had always been taught for her whole entire life, but it seemed like she had temporarily forgotten that she was African.

Daniel Ricciardo's fault.

"Makie, how many drivers did you meet?"

Abu Kamara entered the kitchen of the Kamara-Anderson household, and found his daughter preparing to run from her mother's stern glare.

"Three."

Abu's face lit up in to a bright smile, as he interrupted the murder rampage of his wife to walk over to his daughter, and leant against the kitchen island.

"Who? Did you meet Sebastian again? Did you tell him that I said hello?" Abu grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"No I didn't see Sebastian again, dad. I met Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton." Makena informed her father, noticing the smile on her father's face as he became giddy.

"You met Lewis Hamilton? What was he like? Did he speak to you? Did you tell him about me? Does he know my name?"

Abu listed off multiple questions as it almost became a quick fire round, since his daughter didn't even have time to answer a question before he had moved on to asking the next one.

"Dad, I tripped over his dog whilst I was texting you. You have no idea how many times I had to apologise."

Makena could have died from the embarrassment at having tripped over the dog of Lewis Hamilton, a British bulldog called Roscoe.

Her father had been messaging her multiple times asking her how it was going, and whilst she was staring down at her phone, she had completely missed the dog that was barrelling towards her.

Lewis Hamilton had felt bad about his dog making the girl fall over, and immediately helped her up to her feet, before he found out that the girl seemed to stutter and sputter at the sight of the seven time world champion.

He had to catch her as she almost fainted just from the sight of him too.

So embarrassing.

He had noticed the Mclaren lanyard that was draped around her neck and soon discovered that she was the new social media manager and creator for the Mclaren team and their drivers, which he was amazed at.

He was also very happy that the job had gone to a woman of color.

He felt like she would be able to inspire a lot of the younger generation who were people of color too, and make them realise that they could do whatever it was that they wanted to achieve.

It was his reason for driving, too.

As the only black driver in Formula One, he felt a very large amount of pressure on him to do well and inspire people of all backgrounds and skin colors, and he could confidently say that he had partly managed to achieve that, since the figures of the minorities that were joining and becoming successful in a lot of sports had increased massively since his Formula One debut.

It disgusted him how a lot of black people and people of color and minorities were being mistreated and discriminated against, especially in the work place.

It disgusted him even more, at the very low percentages of women of minorities who were successful in their careers purely due to their gender and skin color.

So, to see a women who was of color working in Formula One, he had never felt so proud.

He had also made a promise, inside of him, to mentor and look after the girl that had tripped over his dog.

____________________________________________________

"MAKENAAAAAA!"

Daniel Ricciardo cheered as he noticed her arrival since it was media day, as he waved both of his hands at the girl enthusiastically.

Makena Kamara-Anderson laughed as she walked towards the Australian, seeing his bright and cheerful face staring at her.

"Your last name doesn't fit so I had to just shout your first name." Daniel beamed at the young woman who was wearing a carbon copy of his Mclaren merchandise.

"Blame my parents for the hyphenated name, Danny. But I'm sure that you'll create something for me." Makena smiled as the Australian ruffled her hair slightly.

The Hazel eyes of the Ricciardo man widened as he noticed that he had messed up her hair, and immediately brought his hands up to her head in an attempt to smooth her hair back down.

"Shit, my bad." Daniel apologised as her hair became super frizzy.

Makena shrugged her shoulders as she grabbed a hair tie and a hair brush to smooth her hair down so that she could tie it back in to a high ponytail.

"I've had worse, believe me. I had my cornrows tugged so hard that I thought that I was losing my scalp." Makena laughed, as she finished up tying her hair back in to a ponytail, finding that she was successful in smoothing her wild hair back.

"Who by?" Daniel questioned with raised eyebrows.

"My mother." Makena released a small chuckle as the two of them entered the Mclaren garage. "I accidentally swore in front of her, and damn, did I get punished for it."

Lando Norris ran to the pair who were just arriving, greeting his Australian team mate with a bro hug before he greeted the new girl.

"Zak and Andreas were wondering where you were, they said that you were late." Lando rushed out as Daniel's confused gaze immediately shot to his wrist, where his watch resided.

"She's an hour earlier than the time that they gave her, how can she be late?"

Makena didn't want to say it out loud, but she had a feeling why.

Because she was a woman of color.

"I'm not late, but I got distracted by a dog on my way here."

____________________________________________________

A/N

very little Makena/Lando content in this one, but more is coming!

Also, I know that I am not a woman of color as I am possibly the most white person that you will ever see, because I'm so pale, but I used my friends experiences in this and I will be doing so for the whole book, because she is a BEAUTIFUL woman of color.

I apologise if what I write offends anyone of color, because it is definitely not my intention, and please do let me know, by messaging me privately where and what I can improve on because I want to give everyone fair representation in books because it what everyone deserves.

If you're white and offended by anything to do with me referencing people of color and minorities, and how they are treated in the current climate, please remove yourself from here as I do not have time to deal with people who refuse to see how unfairly they are treated simply because of who they are and how they look.

ANYWAY,

for some reason, my mind keeps replaying TWO clips non stop even when my insomniac ass is trying to actually sleep 😭

Its the YouTube video where the drivers on the 2022 grid design their t shirts, and I SWEAR

Max saying "It's an opportunity to sell" is in mind all the time as is, Mick's little "Rawr, I can make it pink as well."

Like, it's so bad I think I may need psychological help JUST to get that out of my head because IT WILL NOT GO AWAY

Anyway, enjoy this next chapter of my sunshine and I hope you all have a great week!

I'm proud of you all ❤️

Love you guys

-RUBY