ONE

"I can't believe that you four actually had a sleepover. What are you, seven?"

Alba Zaiter released a small scoff from her painted red lips, her eyes filled with disbelief but also a lot of amusement.

It wasn't every day that her half brother appeared out of his bedroom with three of his best friends, the four of them half naked, their chests bare.

"Don't get all judgy of us just because you don't have girl friends to have sleep overs with, Alby."

Daniel Ricciardo spoke with a smirk upon his face, his eyes glistening with mischief and smugness, his muscled chest bare, his eyebrows raised slightly in a teasing manner.

"I do, we just don't associate ourselves with you and your testosterone, Dannyboy." Alba rolled her dark eyes with a smirk, knowing that the Australian was trying to annoy her, just like he always was whenever they saw one another.

"Break this up, it's disgusting!"

Motaz Zaiter and Lance Stroll shouted in unison, their voices blending together as they broke apart Daniel and Alba, their faces pulled in to an identical look of disgust.

Motaz pushed at his best friends shoulders in order to separate them, the slight feeling of nausea passing over him at the thought of his best friend flirting with his half sister directly in front of him.

Sometimes, he swore that they forgot that he was in the room with them.

They needed to just release the tension, but as her brother, Motaz knew that he would never say as such to Alba. One because he would throw up, and two, she would punch him in the face.

Lance moved Alba backwards, his hands on her forearms, her grin growing at the unamused face of the Canadian who was very much like a little brother of hers, he was easy to annoy.

"Did you sleep okay, Alba?"

Zhou Guanyu grinned from his place in the doorway of Motaz's bedroom, having not moved at all, his chest bare too, ignoring everything that was going on between the group.

He liked having normal conversations with Alba, she was nice to him, always.

"Yeah thanks, Zoo. The only issue was that I could hear these three oafs through the wall." Alba laughed as she turned her head to face the Chinese boy, seeing him nodding his head at her, his signature friendly smile upon his face.

"That's why I have noise cancelling earmuffs to help me sleep, I can get you a pair if you would like." Zhou spoke, not noticing how his three friends were staring at him in disbelief at how he was having a normal conversation as if he was not able to read the room.

"Sure, thanks dude. No wonder you're my favorite." Alba laughed in delight, moving her body towards the staircase with a grin aimed towards the other three.

"Anyway, don't mind me, I've gotta head to meet one of my girl friends... I'll see you later, Dannyboy, try not to miss me too much." Alba shot the Ricciardo man a playful wink before she ran down the stairs, leaving the house just before a shout echoed loudly through the building.

"Dude! She's my sister!"

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"I've got an invitation to watch the race from Esteban's garage."

Mariam Faraj informed her best friend with a giddy smile, happy to be back at a Formula One race, the atmosphere electric and lively, just how she liked it.

She waved as she walked her way past multiple people that she knew, with the Turkish woman having become friendly with them over the years of her coming to races, the group including a couple of actual racing drivers within Formula One.

"Great, I'll go and steal some food from Red Bull's hospitality and I'll meet you there."

Alba Zaiter smiled at her best friend, her body full of excitement from being in the paddock again, though it was a strange feeling knowing that she was not going to be in the Aston Martin garages like she usually was.

Her black heeled boots moved to run to the Red Bull garages, running in to the garage of her friend, his smile appearing as soon as he saw her.

"Checo, give me some food quickly before your boss sees me." Alba grinned with mischief, knowing that she wasn't allowed in Red Bull due to stealing a lot of their food, but with yer friend being a racing driver there, she still always managed to get a bunch of it.

"I knew that you'd come. Here, take the bag."

Sergio Perez laughed as he handed off a brown paper bag which was full to the brim with food from his teams hospitality, with the Mexican man quickly giving his friend a hug, knowing that she couldn't stay long.

"You're the best, you know that right?" Alba clicked her fingers at her friend, seeing him nod his head. "Okay, gotta go, Mariam's in Ocon's garage waiting. Good luck out there!"

The duo blew kisses to one another with a smile before Alba sprinted back to where her best friend was, laughing and joking with Esteban Ocon, a racing driver for Alpine.

"Hola amigos, I told you that I'd bring the goods." The Zaiter woman opened up the paper bag to share them with her best friend whilst at the same time giving the tall French man beside her a small side hug.

"You did."

Esteban Ocon laughed, his smile bright and cheerful just like it always was, especially when he was spending time with two women who most of the grid loved. He was very lucky that he got his invite in first.

Alba was the most known across the grid, she was the troublemaker who a lot of drivers loved to spend time with because of how much fun she was, but Esteban enjoyed Mariam's company more.

Alba was just a bonus.

He had the most in common with Mariam out of the two, so he always enjoyed talking to her. She would always bring banners with his name on and show her support for him, always be there to congratulate him if he did well, or hug him if he didn't.

Mariam was essentially his emotional support dog. Always there and always reliable.

"Now, just letting you know, Estie... Mariam said that she would marry Max, so please try your best not to crash in to him, I know that it's tough, but if possible, do something else for me." Alba laughed, wrapping her arm loosely around her best friends shoulders.

"What?"

"Crash in to Daniel. I need to win a bet."

Mariam's head snapped towards her best friend with a gasp, her eyes wide and alert, her mouth dropped open in slight offence.

"Win it in your own time! Estie is starting from seventh today, so he needs to concentrate on doing his best, not helping you get one over on your boyfriend." Mariam lightly pushed her best friends shoulder, her chocolate brown hair loosely tied back in to a ponytail since there was a slight breeze.

She had already had to pull her hair out from her mouth five times, she refused for it to happen again.

Esteban grinned, high fiving his friend, noticing the slight huff leaving Alba's lips.

"You wanna talk about boyfriends, huh? Then why don't we talk about Max since you adore him so much!"

"Uh, no thanks. Maybe next year."

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A/N

I am here, I am motivated and I am determined

The main character Mariam, in this book is actually named after one of my readers... and one of my besties! So Mariam is danielricsupermercy !!

What do you think?

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

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

Love you all,

-RUBY 🇵🇸🇨🇩🇸🇩🇸🇸🇺🇦🇾🇪