Not My Sister - Charles Leclerc

Chapter 30

"Pizza is here!" Michel cheered from the doorway and walked towards the couch. Clarisse's face brightened up as her stomach was quietly rumbling already, waiting to be fed. The weather was nice today so the two decided to take a seat outside of the house, at the patio heading straight to the backyard. They set up a laptop to watch the race and sat comfortably on the little ratan sofa, preparing the food.

"They tied it too tight, I'm struggling." Clarisse grunted while trying her best to untie the knot on the pizza box. Just then, her phone rang. "You take it from here," she said to Michel. He laughed a little and took a peek at her phone screen. Daniel Ricciardo?

He paused and found his eyes widened as he realized who was calling her right now. "Hey, Dany," Clarisse casually greeted him as she picked up. Michel excitedly scooted over to her side and planted his ears on the other side of the phone, trying to hear what Daniel had to say to her.

"It's 4th of August right? Then it means," Daniel paused a bit and cleared his throat. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Clarisse, happy birthday to you!"

Clarisse burst into laughter as he finished singing, little lines creased on the side of her eyes as she shut them, holding her breath. "Come on, is my singing that bad?" Daniel asked her. His cheeks and ears felt hot hearing that laugh.

Clarisse still didn't respond, her laugh was still there. "Okay, now I feel embarrassed. Maybe my singing really IS that bad," Daniel said again. "No! It was amazing. Thanks, Dany," Clarisse said and leaned to the back of the sofa. Michel followed her with his ear still plastered onto the phone. He grinned, looking at how happy Clarisse is right now.

"I'm sorry I don't have any present for you though," Daniel bit his lips. Honestly he thought about it just now. Why didn't he prepare a simple present? "Now I feel even more bad," he added.

"Shut up. Don't be. That singing was one of the best presents I've got today. Be safe for the race and just bring the car home today, okay?" She felt like she needed to cheer him up a bit after seeing yesterday's qualifying result.

It wasn't really Daniel's day as he only scored 18th fastest. Not really a good position to start in, but we can still hope for a good performance and a miracle to happen.

Daniel's warm laughter could be heard from the other side. "Now you sound like my engineer."

"Maybe I am. If you look closely, you can find me at the pitwall."

"What, really?!" Daniel sounded surprised yet excited. He started to walk away from the garage to look at the pit wall.

"Dany, no! I'm joking! I'm at home though," she laughed and Daniel clicked his tongue. "That's a bummer. I thought you were really here!"

After wishing him for a good race, they finished the call. Clarisse turned her head and saw Michel was looking at her, grinning from ear to ear. Their faces were close to each other. "So that was the Renault driver, Daniel?" Michel asked.

"Yep, the one and only," she answered and looked at her phone screen as the notification bell rang once more. Or twice.

She leaned even closer to him a bit, opening the messenger on her phone. "Look, it's Carlos and Lando now," she said and showed her screen. She found herself trying to open up to this amazing person beside her, that includes trying to feel comfortable in such close proximity to him like this.

Michel blushed when Clarisse leaned her body into his chest. Thank god, she couldn't see his red face right now as she was much shorter than him. Then he saw her phone screen.

"It's really them," he said in awe and read the birthday wishes the two drivers sent her. "I didn't know you're friends with them!"

Clarisse smiled proudly and realized that Michel was actually... very cute. She immediately looked away.

"Of course, I might not have the best social skills out there but I know how to make friends," she said smugly. "Oh, so proud, are you now?" Michel pinched her nose jokingly and they shared a heartfelt laugh.

"I'm going to give them a call. There's a little chance that they will pick up but,"

"Fingers crossed."

She nodded. "Fingers crossed." And she hit the dial on Carlos' number.

There were only two rings until the Spaniard picked up the call. "Hello?" his familiar voice could be heard. "Carlos, open the camera! I want to see you!" Clarisse exclaimed.

The screen immediately popped up and there's Carlos' seemingly confused face. But it immediately turned into his usual happy face as soon as he saw her face. "My birthday girl!"

"My favorite driver!" Clarisse replied with a big smile on her face. "I don't have much time before I have to put away this phone and get ready for the race." Carlos said.

"It's okay. I didn't think you would really pick up, though. How's it going so far?"

"First of all, the weather is freaking hot right now. But I'm starting in the top 10 so I hope everything will go as planned," was his reply.

"And what about Lando?" Clarisse asked. Carlos then started to walk in the garage and found his teammate. "This guy will start right ahead of me. How do you feel today, mister Norris?" Carlos asked in a poorly executed British accent and Lando looked confused as he took off his ear piece.

"What did you say?" the younger teammate asked.

Carlos' flat face could be seen clearly through the screen. "Ah.. this guy doesn't even listen. It's Clarisse," he showed the screen to him.

Lando was taken aback because he didn't expect a video call with her, but he quickly composed himself. "Oh, Clarisse! Happy birthday! I sent you a text earlier."

"Yes, I saw it. Thanks Lando." Clarisse replied. "Oh, here is Michel. He's a Redbull fanboy but I'll introduce him to you guys anyway. Meet Michel." She twisted the screen so it shows both of their faces.

"Oooh, so this is the guy who lives next door?" Carlos winked and Lando waved happily at them. "Nice to meet you! Are you gonna watch from home?" Lando asked.

"Hi! Yeah, and we are set!" Michel showed them the snacks they've prepared. "Ah, I'm so jealous. I do feel hungry now." Carlos said disappointedly. "Don't worry mate, we can have those after the race," Lando said and prepared his balaclava.

They chatted casually for a bit and Clarisse could see that Michel was very happy because he got this unexpected call with the drivers exclusively. Carlos even joked to him that he should root for McLaren instead of Redbull.

"Hungaroring is a very tricky track but yeah, I believe you guys know better." Michel scratched his head. Carlos was amazed. "Wow, this guy knows stuff."

"Of course! He's a hardcore fan." Clarisse butted in and grabbed a slice of pizza. After wishing for a good race, they ended the call. Michel drew a big breath into his lungs and melted into the cushion.

He suddenly grabbed her hand. "You have no idea how fast my heart was beating," he said as he looked upward in a dead stare.

Clarisse laughed seeing his pale face. Michel was definitely not expecting to get a call with those two and she's happy that it certainly just made his day now.

"Okay, drink some water and sit up straight," Clarisse rearranged the cushion so they could sit more comfortably. "Because the race is going to start in a couple of minutes."

--------

A/N:

A little bit of a filler chapter here. As I said before, I got into a few of problems these last few weeks and maybe I should sell my laptop :") the financial condition is pretty tight because... these hard times (sigh) :") the pandemic is still very chaotic in my country so of course I got the impact as well. I mean everyone too. But still, I'm glad that I'm still alive though xD

Sadly with my laptop gone, maybe it's gonna be more difficult for me to update on time :"( I really enjoy writing but I got no choice. My friends told me to set up a patreon account so maybe I don't need to give up my laptop for now. Do you guys have any suggestion? What do you think? Let me know, because I'm open to ideas!

Anyway, as always I hope you enjoy the chapter! See you on the next one~