⌞ always the angel, never a god ⌝

⌞ twenty-two : shut up and drive ⌝

" Please, please please- Get me out of here! It's burning, fuck fuck fuck- " 

___

I giggled as I watched Lewis and Nico try to get into karting fits. Neither had brought their racing suits so it was a struggle to find one that fit. I was standing off to the side, not so subtly taking photos to use as blackmail later. 

"Lu cut it. I can hear you taking pictures." 

"No!" I whined. "I need these for blackmail." 

Nico snorted which caused him to lose his balance. Lewis and I almost fell over laughing as we watched him try to get his feet back under him. Once he got situated, he glared at Lewis and I which caused us to try not to laugh again. 

In the end, we were all in suits and carrying some helmets they gave us. I didn't want to ask how much they spent to rent the entire place out. I might have been spoiled by Jules my entire life but money always made me feel nervous. And having people spend money on me, was worse. 

It didn't set in for me that I was racing actual Formula One drivers until we sat on the line and the lights started to flash. But it was just for fun. It wasn't an actual race. It was just a "family", as the person in the front said, having fun for hours on end. 

But I had to focus back in as the lights went out and my foot hit the gas. I went out front and tried to stay there. It wasn't a course I knew. It was my first time karting outside of the place at home. But I focused, pulling back speed on the corners and gassing it on the straights. Lewis and Nico seemed to not be racing completely, or they had forgotten how different karts were compared to their fancy F1 cars. Either way, I was still in the front as I came over the line. 

I stopped the kart and hopped out as the two did the same, taking my helmet off. 

"You two are slow, how are you world champions?" 

Nico stuck out his tongue at me. "I haven't karted in decades, give me a break here." 

Lewis snorted. "I was pulling back." 

"You were not, you asked me where the clutch was before we started." 

I laughed as the two bickered back and forth. It gave me a second to catch my breath before I was to get back in the kart and do it again. I glanced up at the screen to see my time and cringed. Slow, way slower than I should be. Lewis noticed and I was so focused on how bad I did that I hadn't heard him walk over to me. His hand squeezed my shoulder and I flinched a bit before relaxing. He raised an eyebrow but didn't question it, thankfully. 

"You didn't know the track and now you do." 

"Yeah, but I still could've been faster." 

"We have hours here, you can race until you feel like you did good enough. But just remember, you just beat two world champions." 

I tried to smile at him. It didn't make me feel better. I could have done better, even if it was a new track. There was a standard and I wasn't reaching it. With a sigh, I turned away from the screen and looked back at Nico and Lewis. 

"Race again?" 

"You're on, kiddo." 

I smiled and pulled my helmet on. I wasn't going to lose this time. 

___

I gassed it across the line, forcing the kart to break as the clock stopped. I got up and pulled my helmet off, instantly looking up to the clock and finally, I smiled. A time that was decent enough to remember. 

Lewis and Nico had stopped racing with me about an hour ago and stood on the side, giving me a thumbs-up whenever I finished and cheering me on whenever I passed. I looked over to them to see the same thumbs-up and snorted, brushing the hair stuck to my forehead back. 

"Are you satisfied with that one, tiny racer?" 

I rolled my eyes at his nickname. "Yeah, I like that time." 

"Good, because I think you practice more than we do." 

Lewis and I chuckled at Nico. I handed the helmet back to the worker as I started to take off the racing suit. Watching those two bicker about practice times and whatnot. It didn't bother me like the arguing between Mother and Father did. It was filled with love and there was no real malice behind their words. And they were smiling the entire time. 

"Are you sure you don't want to be a racer?" 

I finally looked back up to their conversation. "Hm? Oh, non. Non, that's Charlie's thing."

"But you're good at it too." 

I shrugged. "Just because someone needed to push Charlie in training." 

"You can like something too, Lul." 

I shrugged again and I think Lewis told Nico to stop pushing when I went to give the suit back to the worker. He thanked me and I nodded. 

"You know, you broke the record for the track." 

"Quoi?" 

The worker nodded. "By three seconds. You're on the leaderboard now. Good job." 

I paused for a second, looking over to where the worker pointed. The leaderboard was in bright lights and E. Leclerc was up at the top. Three seconds. I had beaten a record on a track that I had never raced before in two hours. 

I thanked the worker again and walked back to Lewis and Nico. There was a soft conversation between the two of them on the drive back but I didn't pay attention. My mind was stuck on seeing my name up on that leaderboard. Three seconds. Three full seconds. 

I had never competed. That was Charlie's thing. I was just there to train with him and then kart for fun with friends and people that he knew. But Lewis said I would be great, Nico was surprised at my work, Dani joked about me racing every time I saw him, and Jules always took me to the track to see how I had progressed. All these people around me, all these famous racers, telling me that I had the ability to be something great? 

I wondered if they were right. I wondered what would happen if I chose that path. If I decided to take training seriously, to stop sitting on the side for Charlie to be the star of the family. What would my world look like if I actually chose what I wanted to do? Maybe I could be something great. Something worthy of all these compliments I was getting from people whom I had looked up to my entire life. Maybe then, I would finally stand out of that shadow I had been in my entire life. 

Racing. It could be my way out. 

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a/n: hehehehe gays<3 
anyways, sorry it took so long, college has been killing me but i promise i will try to make sure to get at least one chapter out to you every week and thank you for reading this you guys. love all of you. and as always, love it or don't :p