Hopelessly Devoted ☆ Pierre Gasly

IV

THE PAST

"What brings you to our school?" Pierre curiously asked when it was lunch break. Somehow he felt responsible for showing Juliette around, just like Anthoine and Sara. "Not to be offensive, but you are quite old to be new in our class..."

Juliette had a small smile on her face, and she was shaking her head. "Yeah, you're right. Maman forced me to go to this school. I used to go to the high school next door, but she wants me to focus more on my career since the European Speed Skating Championship is this winter."

Eyebrows rose. "You will compete at the European Speed Skating Championship?" Sara asked, impressed. "Wow, that's amazing."

"If I qualify, yes."

"But how are you training for it? It is summer..." Anthoine looked outside; there was definitely no ice.

"I skate a lot, and it's just a lot of weight training," she answered Anthoine's question.

Sara couldn't stop herself from asking a lot of questions. "But your dad lives in England... Isn't that weird? You can't visit him often."

"Divorced parents," Juliette shrugged. "My dad moved here to marry maman, and after the divorce, he found a job in England and moved back. It's awful to not see him that often, but he has a busy job, so even if I lived with him in England, he wouldn't be home a lot." She looked away from the group, it sounded all so obvious, but it wasn't that obvious.

Pierre nodded, he saw it did something to her. "What does he do for a living, if I may ask?"

A weak smile grew on Juliette's face, talking about her dad made her proud. Her dad was her inspiration, and even though he lived in England, she adored him so much. "He works in the motorsport. We're going to watch the F1 race together in Monza this weekend, actually." She ate some lunch. "What about you? It's the karting season now, and badminton doesn't have a particular season, right?"

"I'm actually trying to get qualified for the BWF Championship at the end of next year. I'm finally old enough to compete at BWF. The competitions are spread over the year, so we don't have like seasons of seven months, it's just the whole year," Sara told.

Juliette's eyes widened, and she nodded, impressed. "The BWF... That's amazing. I wish you all the best and luck. Who is the host of this year?"

"London," Sara answered. "But don't get too excited, France isn't doing too well at the BWF," she said and chuckled sarcastically.

"Shut up. If you don't try it, you will never know. The Chinese are good, but you can be the best," Juliette shot to her, giving her some motivation and positivity. "I mean, the speed skaters are overruled by the Dutch, and yet my French arse is trying to be better."

Pierre nodded. "See, Sara, positivity. We're not the only one who's telling you to be positive."

"I'm a negative person, get over it," Sara shot back.

"I'm racing in the French F4 Championship, so most of them are French," Pierre told in an obvious tone. Laughter filled the canteen. "The season is almost over, so there's not much left."

"And? How is it going?" Juliette curiously asked. She had to push herself so hard to be interested, but she knew if she wasn't talking to others now, she wouldn't be a part of the group for the rest of the year. However, she liked these people, but it was hard to keep focussed.

"At the beginning of the season, we had some difficulties, but it's geeing better and better."

Juliette nodded. "And next year?"

"Formula Renault."

She took a sip from her drink. "That's amazing." Juliette looked at Anthoine. "You race in karts, right?" Anthoine nodded. "And?"

The corners of Anthoine's mouth curled up. "It's going well, thanks. The season is almost over as well, and I will stay in the same class next year."

"The ultimate goal is to end up in Formula One, for both of you? And for you participating at the BWF?" Juliette ran her hand through her hair and looked at them with a smile on her face.

"Absolutely," Anthoine answered with confidence.

Pierre nodded heavily. "We will get there."

"BWF is the goal, but the dream is to win the championship." Sara plucked her nails and shared an insecure smile. "And yours is the Olympic Games?"

"My ultimate goal is to be happy and independent," Juliette neutrally said and pressed a fake smile on her face.

Sara nodded. "Absolutely," she replied. "Which study program are you doing?" She looked interested at Juliette.

"Science. You?"

"You are one of the few in our class with the science program," Pierre smirked. "Interesting."

"I'm unique," Juliette teasingly said.

Sara ate from her lunch. "Literary section."

"Cool, very interesting." Juliette gave her a warm smile. "And you, gentlemen?"

"Economics," both Anthoine and Pierre replied.

Juliette nodded. "If you will excuse me, I'm going to the bathroom. The next class starts at ten, right?"

Sara nodded. "Maths in ten minutes."

"Alright, thanks. See you in ten," Juliette excused herself and walked away from the group.

The group waited a few seconds before they continued talking again. For the first time in years, someone joined their group.

Sara looked at Pierre. "What do you think about Juliette?" Her eyes crossed with Anthoine's a few seconds later.

"She's a kind girl, I think really passionate about her sport. I'm just curious to know why she suddenly joins our class now..." Anthoine admitted. "She's smart."

Pierre agreed. "She's nice and really interested. I like how she knows things about motorsport, unlike you, Sara."

"Oh, shut it," Sara snorted. "It's not my cup of tea, you know that. I think Juliette will be a good friend, she's friendly and really interested in other people's life."