Silver Lining [Mick Schumacher]

Lie To Me

"And they love to say I'm crazy
Suspicious and insecure
But, baby, can you blame me?
You know I've been hurt before."
Lie To Me; Alessia Cara

-

"Harps, you know I love talking to you but I'm pretty busy right now," were the first words Hestia uttered as she accepted a Facetime call from her sister. It was Sunday afternoon, and while other would spend it doing something meaningful or nothing at all, Hestia decided to watch a Formula 1 race. It was to be the first time she would get a taste of motorsport, and it was all because of Mick. That damned blond German who seemed too good to be true. Too kind, too understanding, too hot, too genuine, too normal, too much of everything. Oh, how he messed up her head in such a short period of time. So clear yet so enigmatic. What was he up to, what his true intentions were? It was way too suspicious, it must have been some kind of  game, a devilish manipulation.

"What better could you possibly be doing than talking to your dear sister?" Harper's voice echoed through the speakers. She was in Italy, studying. And with both Alistair and Hestia not being in America, she didn't see herself voluntarily going through jet lag anytime soon. Harper never denied that she was glad to be away from that fake world also known as Hollywood. She was happy in Italy, she fell in love with Rome from the first glance.

"Watching a Formula 1 race," Hestia blurted out, her eyes switching to the TV screen when twenty cars were already lined up on the starting grid, ready to race in the desert with the bright moonlight shining down on them. Mick was starting 19th, as he intended to.

"I'm sorry what?" Harper exclaimed in surprise, "since when did you become interested in this kind of stuff?"

"I came across it pretty recently...well, this is actually the first race of the season in Bahrain so...hold on, they are starting now," she interrupted herself as the lights went out, and all twenty wild beasts starting chasing each other down like hunters used to chase down foxes back in the day.

"I don't recognise you, Hestie. You always rolled your eyes at Indy or NASCAR and suddenly, you are into Formula 1? Something seems off to me," Harper muttered while crossing her arms over her chest. She knew her sister inside out, and if there was something Hestia had never shown a tiny hint of interest in, motorsport was the answer.

"Stop analysing me, I just-" Hestia stopped mid-sentence as one of the drivers lost control of his car and went straight into the wall at a ridiculously high speed so typical for this sport. Much to her horror, the car looked exactly like Haas. That gave out a 50/50 chance that it was Mick who crashed.

"Hestie? Are you alright?" Harper immediately noticed the change in Hestia's features, how her face turned pale out of the sudden, "did something happen there?"

"Oh, it's just Mazepin," if she could, Hestia would slap herself for feeling relief. It wasn't Mick who crashed, but his teammate, Nikita Mazepin. She felt sorry for the Russian because that truly was a terrible way to make an entrance into Formula 1. And even though it was disrespectful, she felt happy that Mick survived the first lap that seemed to be the most troublesome part of the race. He couldn't finish 20th anymore, "there was a crash and therefore, a Safety Car has to be deployed. Which means that the whole pack of drivers will be led by another car that drives slower than is a normal speed during the race. That slows down the whole grid, which makes the track safe for the marshalls to put away the crashed car."

"Who's Mazepin?" Harper asked curiously, her sister's sudden enthusiasm pleasing her as well as it did raise suspicions. Where did the interest come from?

"A rich Russian fella who is hated by the whole world from what I've heard," Hestia did her research before the race weekend, she was eager to find out more about the sport that meant a whole world to Mick. And boy, it really was a fascinating field to follow.