-+Rivals+- A Lando Norris Fanfic

Chapter 35

(A/n: So I'm a little shook because I was watching a video from one of Lando's streams the other day, it was the bit at the end of his stream where he was watching the AlphaMaxNova1 videos before the end of the stream, and the chat was on screen and someone was POSTING A LINK TO THIS STORY OVER AND OVER in the chat and I was freaking out like Oh god Lando please don't see that. So yea, I was basically traumatized about that for a bit but I finally made a chapter, so I guess it's okay lmao) 

When I woke up in the morning to an empty bed, I did a big stretch and splayed out across the entirety of the bed. I leaned forward to do an exam of my ankle after yesterday's incident, seeing it was a bit more swollen than yesterday. Chastising myself, I threw an ice pack on it, since I had a bit of time to kill before Penelope was going to pick me up.

How ya feelin? Lando asked over text.

Never better <3 I sent.

Liarrrrr.

Mayhaps but I'll be fine. I laughed as I sent the text. Sending a quick good luck and I love you to Lando, I leaned over to my suitcase to get changed before wheeling myself to the bathroom to brush my teeth and braid my hair into my normal double braids. After that was done, I fastened the ankle brace into place as tightly as I could to limit the movement as much as I could.

Almost immediately as I finished, Penelope showed up at my door. She didn't have too much to debrief me on, basically just informing me that I'm doing a few interviews before I got to warm up, which was pretty standard. The team didn't have too much to talk to me about, but my engineer was going to do a quick run over the strategy with me so I was prepared for contingencies. It all seemed like a relatively standard day, so I nodded as the car pulled into the track.

Interviews were pretty mundane. Everyone was still only obsessed about my ankle. C'mon people, get a move on, I'm more interesting than you're making me out to be.

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All the drivers made their way down to the track for the driver's parade. I had just gotten notice that I was receiving a 10 place grid penalty, because I apparently got a new part in my power unit, meaning I was starting 17th on the grid, only ahead of the three driver's starting in the pit lane. I was a little annoyed, but calmed myself down quickly; Getting mad at my team will not end well for anyone, they probably deemed that I really needed the new part. I can fight my way up from the back of the grid, I had good pace yesterday.

When I made it to the grid for the parade, I saw that once again, we were on the truck for the parade. Lando came over to me as I arrived in the hallway where the drivers meet.

"I'm giving you a piggyback ride to the truck," He said.

"Lando-" I started, but he cut me off.

"It won't be a big deal, I helped lift you up to the truck last time, this is the same thing. You are definitely not going up those steps on crutches," He insisted.

"If you get in trouble, you're grounded," I told him.

"My team is chill, it'll be fine," He said.

He walked away as other drivers arrived, leaving an opening for Charles to come talk to me.

"I heard about your penalty, that's a pity," He said.

"I'm just gonna be boosting my overtaking stat," I shrugged.

"True, I guess you can't really lose any positions if the other three are starting from the pit lane," He agreed.