All I know - Lando Norris

Chapter 9

"Alright, we want you to read some of the last comments your fans left you on the internet.", Julian said to me and handed me a bucket full of pieces of paper. "Just do a quick intro for this next video and then pick a paper, read the comment out loud and somehow respond to it, alright?" I nodded and sat up straight in the little bar stool that stood in front of my white wall, ready for the next YouTube video to be filmed.  

A couple of weeks have passed since the French Grand Prix and Julian kept his word when he said I was in massive trouble. I was closely monitored by himself or other managers of his company for almost two weeks straight. They followed me everywhere and even had security watch my apartment so they knew I was at home. It kind of felt very weird, but I knew I had to regain their trust, so I accepted my fate and went along with it, even though it made me madly uncomfortable. Almost every minute of the past days had been planned through. An interview here, a photoshoot there, then a recording session for my YouTube channel. I was exhausted.

They monitored me that closely that I didn't even dare to answer Daniel's or Pierre's text messages. I had been ignoring them for the entirety of the time. I felt bad about it because I knew it wasn't right and they were just trying to be nice, but I couldn't risk getting in more trouble with my management at the moment. I couldn't risk my career. 

I quickly checked my appearance on the small screen of the camera. My hair was in french braids and I was wearing a plain white shirt. Then Julian held up his thumb as he turned the video. It was the sign I could start with the video. I smiled.

"Hey, guys. Thanks for tuning in. Today, I will be reading some of your comments that I have in this wonderful bucket right here" I held up the small metal bucket in my hand. "and then I guess I'll just react to them." I looked down and stuck my hand into the bucket and pulled out the first paper. I opened it and read it quickly. 

"Oh, this is kind of the perfect start for the video. It says: 'Hi Tatiana, how was your day?'" I laughed a little. It really was the perfect first question for the video. "My day was pretty busy.", I then started to answer. "I had some appointments and interviews, so I've been working pretty much all day. But it still was great. I had a lot of fun, so thank you for asking about my day." I smiled once more and threw the little piece of paper onto the floor next to me. 

"Alright, let's get onto the next one." I pulled out another piece of paper and read it out loud. " 'How did you get into F1?' I guess this is a comment that was posted under the photo that I posted when I visited the French GP a couple of weeks ago. At least that's what it looks like. Ehm, I got into F1 thanks to my father. We've been watching it since I was a little girl, and I just always enjoyed watching it with him, even though I had no idea what was going on back in the day. But I would say I know about it now."

I went through most of the pieces of paper after this comment and responded to them appropriately. The majority of them asked me about the time working on Toxic, some about my relationships with my family or Lucas and some others about my personality itself. I had about two or three papers left in the bucket. I pulled one out and scanned the question with my eyes.

" 'I can imagine the past weeks have been hard for you. What was the worst thing that had happened since you became famous?' Ahh, that's a difficult one to answer. Most of the things that changed had been changed for the good." I saw in the corner of my eyes that Julian was watching me closely. Even though he didn't have to. He knew as well as I did they were just going to cut the parts out that they didn't want to be published.

"I had an encounter with some fans outside of my hotel a couple of days back in London, which would have been fine, I love meeting you guys and chatting with you, but they crossed personal boundaries. So maybe this experience isn't that nice. Or on some occasions, maybe the paparazzi? Sometimes you just want to be left alone and mind your own business, and it's not a nice feeling then if you know there are cameras that watch you closely every time you go out." My hand went into the bucket again and pulled out the last piece of paper. I read the question and needed to smile. This question was too precious.