All I know - Lando Norris

Chapter 19

The alarm sounded too loud through the peacefully quiet room and made Lando jump up. He hated this jarring sound he set as an alarm tone, but others didn't work. He needed this persistent and noisy tone to get woken up. Annoyed he turned it off and sat up straight. 8:00 a.m. Way too early for him after yesterday's qualifying, but he had appointments to take care of. Unlocking his phone, he checked WhatsApp and Instagram quickly, before finally getting up completely and taking a shower. 

As he got dressed, he went through his day mentally. 8:30, breakfast with Jon, Will and Jose. 9:15, physio with Jon. 10:00, departure to the track. 11:00, media. 11:30, short briefing for the race about the weather and things like that. 13:30, warm-ups with Jon. 14:30, installation laps. 14:50, national hymn. 15:00, race. It was a packed day, but that was normal for a race day. What else was there to think off? Track limits in turn 5. The Media panel is on the different side of the paddock. McLaren garage on the third last box at the pitlane. Very hot weather, so a lot of hydration is needed from his side. Tia being at the paddock. His thought process stopped as the name appeared in his mind. 

He wasn't sure if he saw the right thing yesterday or if he was hallucinating, but he could have sworn to see Tia in the paddock. She was there, he knew it. Well, his heart knew it, even though his brain didn't want to believe it. 'It isn't her', his brain had told him. 'She's not allowed to go to the races anymore.' Just to make sure his heart was right, he opened Instagram once more.

Clicking onto Tia's profile, the corner of his lips immediately went up in a little smile. It had hit him, hard, and he knew it. His fingers opened the photos she had been tagged in and his eyes scanned through those. Some showed her being normally photographed, but some showed her standing in the paddock with her boyfriend, Lucas. So his heart was right. Take that, brain! Still smiling, he made his way out of the hotel room and towards the breakfast hall. 

Jon, Will and Jose were already sitting together at a table in one of the corners of the big hall. All of them wore the same white polo shirt that Lando was wearing, showing off their belonging to the McLaren F1 team. He greeted the guys and sat down at first, facing the big room. It was his normal routine to firstly sit down with his team for a moment, before getting some breakfast a little later. Besides, he needed to ask Jon what he thought was the best thing to eat in order to properly prepare for the race today. 

"Good morning, Lando.", Will, his senior engineer greeted back and took a sip from his coffee cup. "Do you now want to share what happened to you yesterday?", he asked the same question as yesterday after the qualifying. The entire team had bombed him with those questions. They just wanted to know the reason for his big change in performance. Lando smiled and shook his head. 

"No, I don't think I will.", Lando answered cheekily and laughed a little.

"I have a pretty good idea what's it about, but I'm not going to share if Lando doesn't want me to.", Jon laughed with his trainee and locked eyes with him. Jon's eyes move to a point in the room for a split second, mentioning to Lando he should look there. Lando's eyes followed the mentioning of his trainer and his gaze rested on another table for a second. The table was set close to the buffet that had all the breakfast food set.

Four people were sitting there, three men and one girl. Lando's eyes immediately glued on the brown-haired girl. It was bonded together in a high ponytail that waggled in the air every time she made even the slightest movement. Lando couldn't tell if she was wearing make-up or not, but he didn't care. She was wearing a simple dark red shirt. A golden necklace hung from her neck and rested on her well-defined collarbones. Had she been losing weight?

A kick of a foot on his shin gained Lando's attention and he looked at his trainer furiously. He, in turn, looked at him in amusement. Heat rose to Lando's cheek as he realised he had been caught staring.