kachow | arthur leclerc

chapter thirteen

location: Miami, Florida

PEOPLE RAN between buildings under the pour in rain. A large thunderstorm had rolled into the area during the break between FP3 and Qualifying. Olivia stood in the opening of the garage watching the rain fall.

She watched the lightning burst across the dark sky. Qualifying was supposed to run in 30 minutes but the storm didn't look like it was going to let up any time soon. While it looked so comforting, a small amount of fear was hiding in the back of her mind.

What if she underperformed? What if the car got damaged from her sliding into the wall? What if she got a penalty for tomorrow? Question after question ran through her mind. Every tiny thing that could go wrong today or tomorrow. She glanced at the monitors that lined the wall. The radar showed the storm continuing to expand. The team radios were going crazy, communicating with other teams to figure out what was going to happen. Henry, the PREMA physical therapist, walked up to her.

"Hey you. Nico said you asked for a quick session with the heating pad." Henry said, leaning against the wall beside her.

"Yeah, I've got some irritation after FP3 so I thought it might help." Olivia responded, giving him a smile. The two headed to her driver's room where the heating pad was already set up. Olivia had to pull up her fire proofs slightly to allow the pad to press against bare skin. Henry used a brace wrapping and athletic tape to kept it tightly pressed to her back.

"No more than 20 minutes, okay. I need to go check on Ollie." Henry said, before leaving her alone on the small couch. Olivia grabbed her headphones off the coffee table, placed them over her head, and laid her head down on a pillow.

After 20 minutes, her alarm rang with a shrill beeping. She dropped her headphones around her neck and turn the alarm. Slowly, she peeled off the athletic tape and unwrapped the heating pad from her back. She turned it off and dropped it onto the table beside the couch. She glanced at her phone to see no urgent texts and no updates about the race. Olivia pulled herself off of the couch and pulled her fire proofs back down over her stomach. There was a knock at her door before it was pushed open by Henry.

"Nico wanted me to come get you. Qualifying is going to start soon and he needs you in the car." Henry said, holding on to her helmet that contained her gloves and balaclava. Olivia grabbed rhetorical helmet from him and starting to get everything on as she stepped out of her room.

Nico was standing over her car, waiting for her. She noticed the rain had let up a bit, no longer a thunderstorm but still decently raining.

"First car goes out in five minutes." He said, helping her climb over the halo of the car. Olivia adjusted herself in the car before giving Nico a thumbs up. It wasn't long before Nico waved her out of the garage. Several cars were already waiting at the pit exit as she pulled her car up behind her. As she waited for her turn to start her lap, she couldn't push this nagging feeling in her stomach away.

Olivia qualified in P8 and crossed the checkered flag in P6. Scoring points for the team felt amazing. Everything felt amazing. Her team was proud of her, Nico was the first to congratulate her. She knew that her family was not there, off at Nicolas' race.

"Amazing race, kiddo." He said, pulling her into a tight hug. She wrapped her arms around him.

"Thanks Nico. It feels to nice to have a good finish again."

"The team is proud of you. I don't want it hold you here, you have media duties to get done." Nico said, letting her go. Olivia groaned, not wanting to deal with the media. She was lead to  the media pit to deal with post-race interviews.