Precious Star

Dream

"So, are sunglasses your new clogs?" Max asked as we headed into the paddock for the Italian GP, my home GP.

"My new clogs?" I asked, looking down at my feet. I was most definitely not wearing my clogs.

"When you first got your clogs, they became part of your everyday. Now you have only been using sunglasses," he explained, using his hands as he began to explain.

"Yeah, I guess. They are nice," I said, trying to sound the most believable. I liked glasses, but having to wear them almost 24/7 was draining. I hate them. Carlos, you're a bitch.

"Alaina! Max! Hold up!"

"Carlos, mate. How are you?" Max asked, bringing Carlos in for a hug.

"Fine, I had a great breakfast. Alaina, carino, how are you?" [Dear] Carlos asked as he tried to bring me into a hug.

"Beter, als je niet zo oplettend was," [Better, if you were not so observant] I answered with a smile in the most annoyed mood. Giving Carlos a side hug, I walked ahead of the two.

"Is she good? What did she say? I think that was Dutch," I heard Carlos ask Max, clearly confused.

"What did you do?" Max asked him.

"Me?! What did I do?! I don't know. Let me think," was all I heard Carlos say before I arrived at the Ferrari garage.

"Hello, beautiful," I said to my car. She was pretty. Too pretty.

"Ciao, bella," [Hello, beautiful] I heard a voice from behind me. His voice.

"Charles. Max and Carlos can be around," I said as he wrapped his arms around my waist and dug his face into my neck, placing small kisses. "I was just with them before I came in."

"Mhmm," he just hummed, clearly not paying attention to me.

"Charles, I had a dream."

"About?"

"A crash. A bad crash," this caught his attention, and he let me go, turning me around so I could face him.

"What did you see?" Charles asked seriously.

"I don't know. I was leading the race, and then I wasn't. It didn't make sense. And then I just saw a car flip and crash really bad. There were flames, so many flames, Charles."

"Who? Who was in the car?"

"I don't know. I don't even remember the color of the car. All I remember is seeing the crash. I don't have a good feeling about this, Charles," I said, looking back at my car.

"Valentine, preziosa. Look at me," he said, grabbing my cheeks to make me look at him. "If you do not want to race, you don't have to. If you do not want me to race, I won't."

"Charles, I can not ask you not to race. We need to. It's my first home grand prix. We need this for the team. I also need this race to keep my lead for the championship."

"If that is what you want, then I'm here."

"Thank you, Charles," I said, closing my eyes and leaning into his touch. "Just promise me you won't crash."

"I promise, preziosa."

~

My engineers were preparing any last-minute things as we all waiting for the lights to go out. I had gotten P1 in qualifying yesterday, and Charles was right behind me, followed by Max, Fernando, Carlos, Lando, Daniel, Pierre, and the rest of the grid.

"Valentine," Charles said through the radio.

"Charles," I responded, my voice clearly sounding shaky.

"Breathe, you are okay. We are okay," he assured, doing his best to sound calm and collected. But I knew he was nervous. He was nervous for me best as much as I wanted to concentrate on this race, I couldn't. My mind kept on replaying the crash.

"Just make it to the end."

"To the end," he repeated.

"Are you ready?" one of my engineers asked as they were preparing to clear the grid. I just gave them a thumbs-up before they left. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, doing my best to relax every muscle in my body.

To the end.

Opening my eyes again, the lights went off, and the race began.

~

Todays Qatar GP was absolutely heartbreaking to watch.
The conditions were not it, the track limits, and the drivers health.
Oscar's and Lando's double podium though!!