No Regrets, Only Memories

Not. Even. Close.

Maeve

The next morning was frustrating and exhausting. Christian had rushed me to do all of the promotional photos they would need for the year and my official driver profile. He also agreed to a conference call with my professors and the head of my school to create a new schedule for my studies that worked with the race calendar. It involved a lot of work on my part. Majorly, I would have to spend the entire summer break at the school working on my research. That was the part I was happy to agree to. However, if I had any issues or fell behind in any way, they would force me to go part time. It would essentially push my graduation date back two years and cut some of my funding.

It was a lot of pressure, but arriving at the paddock the next morning certainly cleared part of it up.

"Good morningggg!" Daniel sang as he looped his arm with mine. Clearly, he had already been here for a while and had been waiting for me. His team was nowhere to be found and he had none of his bags.

"How can you be in such a chipper mood after all this work we've done. I think I'm still hungover from Monday too." I groaned as Daniel pulled me along towards the Paddock entrance. He was oblivious to my dig at my headache since we arrived being entirely his fault. Stupid patsy...

"Well I solved part of your problem. Michael has agreed to also be your trainer since Yrsa had to return back to the factory." He held up his hand for a fist bump and I couldn't help returning it as that was in fact part of my problem. Getting a whole new crew ready to go for a driver was unusual since a lot of Max's PR people would be working with him still to update fans. His trainer was also staying to help monitor his progress and get him ready when the time comes. It was a small bit of payback for the pain he caused.

"Alright, that's one issue taken care of. Anything else you've solved today, wonder Dan?" He chuckled as we arrived at the turnstile to enter.

We separated only for a moment to scan our passes before he pulled me back in.

"I know where they hide the candy in hospo." I scoffed at his whispered words.

"Well what are we standing around here for?!," I stopped him, only to hop on his back, thankful that he caught my legs," lead the way Wonder Dan!" I pointed in the general direction of our building as he just laughed and carried me straight into the paddock.

Some of the other drivers and team members saw us, smiling as we went by. It was clear that we had become part of the entertainment for the paddock as a whole. It made sense as I was fresh blood and Daniel was the all around smiles guy. To see the two of us messing around was a refreshing take on the teammates' relationship. It was easy to mistake it as a relationship though since no one knew our long history together. Which is why the press walking up to us was always nerve wracking for me.

"Well what do we have here? Going for a ride on this fine day are we?" My smile faltered as a man walked up to us in our dash to get to the candy.

"Hey Ted, have you met Maeve yet?" Daniel motioned for me to get off his back then with a brisk double tap on my leg and I quickly did so.

"Nope, this would be the first time. You really took the grid by storm young lady. P3 on a first showing with 24 hours notice is quite the feat. Are you looking for a repeat here in Sakhir?" I straightened out my shirt and looked down the paddock at the other teams milling about.

"Well we always hope, but who knows. Daniel might have a really bad weekend." Daniel laughed.

"Oh I'll have a bad weekend? What about you? Already a bad hair day...." My jaw dropped as my hands flew to my hair.

"Honestly just rude! And I wasn't going to say anything about your fly being down on camera..." Daniel's smile faltered and he really fought to look for a few seconds, knowing that I was surely kidding. He checked anyway and it made Ted laugh.