THE PLAN WAS TO sleep as long as possible. however, when you're stuck with max in a room, that's not possible.

"ouch, fuck!" max's voice woke her with a start, the sound of metal clanging following it.

"for fucks sake," she grumbled, rubbing her eyes as she sat up. immediately, she cringed backwards when she felt something brush her cheek. when her vision cleared, she noticed that string was hanging in front of her — lots of it. following it up . . .

"oh my," she gasped, eyes locked on the ceiling. what looked like a hundred balloons were dusting the roof of the ceiling, colouring the white roof in shades of pink.

and then she remembered what she heard from the other room. snapping out of her daze at the strange sight she woke up to, she picked up an oversized shirt and pulled it on over the sports bra she had on. she climbed out of bed and walked into the kitchen. "max?" she called out.

"isabel, hi," he acknowledged, a metal spatula in his hand as he turned away from the frying pan. "happy birthday."

isabel's eyebrows furrowed. "how did you—"

"i'm not stupid," he rolled his eyes. "but i made breakfast because charles said so," he then muttered, "why i listen to him is beyond me."

"thanks . . .?" unsure, she walked closer to the stovetop that max was in front of. a plate of pancakes was beside it along with cut up banana. he flipped some of the pancakes in the pan.

"charles, carlos, lando and noah are coming over apparently," he shrugged, "i can leave."

"maybe you are stupid," isabel rolled her eyes as she leaned against the corner, watching the pancakes in the pan. "this is your hotel room and you cooked. stay."

"huh?"

"yes, you heard me," she waved off as she straightened back up and walked away from the kitchen. "you'll probably flirt with my brother the whole time, anyway," she said under her breath as she left to go get dressed.

max heard her and rolled his eyes, focusing back on the pancakes.

x

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" noah, charles, lando and carlos chorused as soon as isabel opened the door when she heard knocking.

charles got through first and wrapped his sister into a tight hug. "joyeux anniversaire."

"merci, je t'aime beaucoup," she squeezed charles once more before letting go of him. immediately, lando swept her off her feet and spun her around.

"you're old!" he grinned, setting her back down on the ground.

"i am a few months older than you, stupid," she brought her hand up to his forehead and pushed him away.

"happy birthday, troublemaker," carlos hugged her next. "mhm! i smell food!"

"courtesy of me," noah added as he took carlos' place. "i kinda made charles tell max to cook breakfast. and— oh! yeah! he added as he caught sight of the balloons over her shoulder. he pulled back from her. "lando and i had to try fit so many balloons in the elevator, but it worked," he gestured to the ceiling.

"it scared the shit out of me when i woke up," isabel chuckled quietly as she turned to look at the balloons again. "but thank you." she hadn't expected much at all despite the fact that noah said he was planning things for her birthday.

for one, she was flying out to canada today because the flight was so long and race week had already begun. then again, charles and carlos always helped plan things for her birthday, but so far every other year, they were given a week off in between races so she could travel to monaco. there was that one year that her and charles had flown out to england because arthur had a race, but otherwise she always flew home to the principality.

it didn't look like that was happening this year. more so, that meant she didn't get too see anyone else in her family except for charles.

"you're welcome," lando grinned before he started to walk through the hotel room to find the kitchen. "can we eat now?"

when they walked into the kitchen, max was scrolling through his phone as he sat at the counter. everyone got settled down at the counter, and lando noticed that there were pancakes on offer for breakfast. "ah, now i see why we didn't go out for breakfast," he laughed, stealing some of them off the plate.

"our trainers do not need to find out," charles nodded, leaning over to grab a few before dropping two on isabel's plate and two on his own.

"there's banana," carlos pointed out, "it's healthy still."

"you're so full of shit," noah choked out a laugh as the plate of pancakes got passed around the table. after he took some, he handed the plate to max. "thanks, max."

"mhm, thank you," isabel and charles said together as they glanced down at max, who was across the counter from them. "these are really good," isabel added.

max shrugged in response, "i like to cook," but he cracked a smile. isabel noticed that some of the personality he had around daniel jumped out when he was around his friends. she never got to see it unsurprisingly, but when their groups merged, she noticed it appeared more often.

the kitchen fell into a comfortable silence as everyone ate. the atmosphere in a hotel room that isabel and max shared had never been this friendly before. then again, lando, carlos, charles and noah were able to brighten any room they walked into.

"what other plans do you have?" isabel asked as she set down her knife and instead stabbed a slice of banana with her fork. "does it include me sleeping through jetlag?"

noah only grinned. "nope. and i'm not telling you shit. but you can sleep on tuesday, and then my plans start up on wednesday. you'll love it, i swear."

"yeah," carlos agreed. "we did good."

isabel huffed. "i fucking hate surprises."

charles grinned. "we know. but you'll love it."

x

SIXTEEN HOURS ON A plane is the worst way to spend your birthday. isabel used it as an opportunity to try sleep through it all, but even that was an issue.

she was travelling with charles and pierre for the total of the sixteen hours. which meant that she wasn't going to get any sleep unless she either knocked them out or had her headphones up to the maximum volume. all they did was gossip.

they'd left once presents had been handed out after breakfast. isabel was always awkward when receiving gifts, which didn't help at all.

lando got her a polaroid camera with a few packets of film. carlos gave her a solid silver bracelet with the word 'troublemaker' engraved into the band. noah gave her a high-five because his gift was in canada.

she opened charles' and pierre's on the plane with them. both had grown up with her and knew all too well what she liked. and that happened to be shiny things. from charles she recieved a pair of black shoes with a chunkier heel because he knew she couldn't stand high heels, and pierre gifted her a diamond choker necklace with a matching pair of earrings. pierre used the opportunity to say that his gift was cooler than charles'.

"the rest of my present is in canada," charles rolled his eyes, "stop being annoying."

isabel snorted, "you sound like a child."

"you are a child," charles shot back.

pierre laughed, "you both are."

the leclerc siblings glanced at each other before turning their gaze on pierre. "you are an old man," they said. "you're almost thirty," isabel added.

"i'm twenty-six!"

"still closer to thirty," she cleared her throat before laughing. she played with the settings on her chair until it was all the way back. "anyway, i'm sleeping. keep your gossip quiet for once, please. i do not care about paddock rumours."

isabel pulled her blanket up over her as she placed her headphones on. "that's just because you're involved in them," charles chuckled. "you know, you and your new bestie—"

"i watched you flirt with him all morning," isabel deadpanned as she laid back and got comfortable. "i'll start paddock rumours about you at this rate," and with that she hit play on one of her playlists and closed her eyes.

pierre looked back at charles. "do you think she knows that people think they f—"

charles picked up his pillow and tossed it at pierre to get him to shut up. "mate, i don't want to think about that," he grimaced. "ew." pierre could only laugh in response.

x

AFTER SLEEPING ALL DAY in charles' hotel room because she was too tired to figure out which one she was staying in, it was finally wednesday.

isabel met up with tori in the hotel lobby before midday. tori handed her a bouquet of blue and yellow flowers and wished her a happy birthday with a hug. isabel couldn't help but smile about it all now that a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. she loved tori as a friend more than a manager, but the woman had been a little irritating during the whole ultimatum ordeal.

"okay," tori said once she released her friend from the hug. "i already got your room key," she handed the card to isabel. "sixth floor, noah is next door. the room's a bit smaller now obviously, but it looks really fuckin' comfortable."

isabel blinked, mouth parted slightly before she looked down at the keycard she was holding. "obviously?" she asked.

"uh huh," tori nodded, "you've got your own room now, remember? the pr shit is over!"

oh. how did i forget? she asked herself before trying to figure out why she hadn't reacted happier to the news. this was a good thing. it meant that finally she could have some peace and quiet by herself throughout race weeks for the rest of the season. this was a good thing. "sorry," she shook her head, "i forgot. tired," she waved off, and tori nodded immediately.

"i hope you're not too tired for tonight, then," tori said. "noah told me the shit he's got planned."

x

IMESSAGE —

CHARLIE + BELLE

CHARLIE

message me when you are
dressed

i'll pick you up!

BELLE

charles

my lovely brother

i can hear you loudly
gossiping outside

who else is there

shush are you ready or not

don't tell me to shush

but i am

ISABEL HAD NO CLUE what she was expecting. she'd showered and gotten dressed without having to wait to use the bathroom for once, which was a miracle in itself. that meant not dealing with max in his shitty moods where he would shower longer on purpose just to piss her off.

in a black, tight-fitted dress with the shoes charles gave her and the jewellery pierre gave her, isabel walked over to her door once she could hear knocking.

"mon dieu, char— oh," isabel's hand slammed against her mouth as she almost fell backwards at the sight in front of her. she knew her eyes would've welled up if they could, the burning she could feel a telltale sign.

there, next to her older brother, stood her younger brother. arthur was dressed in all black with lighter hair messily ruffled. "ciao, belle!" he grinned and that's all it took for isabel to throw herself at him.

arthur laughed as he caught his older sister by wrapping his arms around her, almost feeling his airflow restrict by how tight she had her arms wrapped around his neck. "joyeux anniversaire, ma petite fleur," he laughed more when she grumbled incoherently about the use of the nickname she deemed stupid.

"stop it," it was strange speaking english when two of her brothers were with her. ever since they were kids, they had hardly ever spoken in english to each other, but they had made a deal last year that they were going to more often to perfect the language. their accents became heavier in the company of each other, however, and so others around them usually had a hard time trying to figure out what they were saying.

"no," arthur smiled cheekily as he let go of her, instead wrapping his arm around her shoulders and half-leaning against her.

isabel turned to look at charles, "i cannot even tell you how much i love you," she genuinely wanted to cry. "merci, charlie. thank you."

"maman and lorenzo couldn't fly out," charles before his smile turned to a slight smirk. "but your least favourite was available, so . . ."

arthur rolled his eyes before glancing back at his sister. "isabel," he started to walk down the hallway with her, charles on her other side. "he did not pay for my plane ticket," he snitched, and charles rolled his eyes and huffed.

"i'm telling maman," isabel looped her arm through charles' as they walked towards the elevator. she wished that the rest of her family could be with her, but the fact that charles had gotten arthur to fly out? it made her birthday ( well, birthday week ) feel a lot more special.

"and i'll tell her about all the times you snuck out and stole the car to go meet up with that girl," charles shot back and isabel immediately dug the heel of her shoe into his foot. "ow!"

arthur giggled, "you deserved that."

charles shot him a look, "do not get me started on you. i have so much blackmail—"

"boys, boys," isabel brought her brothers closer to her sides. "what about none of us snitch. that is all." when she got a mumbled agreement from both of them, she looked at charles. "can you go hit the button really quick?"

charles nodded and walked ahead to go press the button on the wall that would bring the elevator up to them. when he was a decent distance ahead, isabel whispered to arthur, "i will steal the money from him and transfer it to you."

"merci," arthur's smile was blinding. "i will not tell him."

x

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ISABEL!"

dumbstruck, isabel clutched onto charles' arm tighter as her other hand covered her mouth. majority of the current f1 grid were all crowded around a long table within the tower they were currently in. on the top floor of the tower was the private dining area that everyone was in, and underneath that was the rest of the restaurant.

everyone was there, and she couldn't even say anything that portrayed any of her feelings because she was frozen to the spot in ultimate shock that noah had been able to get most of her friends together for her.

"oh my god," isabel stared before noah came up to her. the second she was close enough, she hugged him. "how did you manage to . . . how?"

noah grinned, "you did it all for me last year. i'm returning the favour."

but there was one person in particular that stood out.

there, towards the back with sebastian and mick, was kimi raikkonen. kimi fucking raikkonen. the one person she hadn't expected to show up.

as much as she loved everyone else, the first person she hurried over to was kimi. there was a little smile on his face in the presence of others which meant that clearly he had already started drinking, but he was here nonetheless. "kimi!" she smiled brightly as she embraced him, only smiling more when she felt him hug her back. it didn't last long because she didn't want to make him feel awkward with so many people around, but it was enough. she hadn't seen him since the end of last year, after all.

"isabel," there was a bit of an uplift in his tone. yep, he's definitely already started drinking, she silently chuckled. "happy birthday."

"i cannot believe you're here," she breathed out in surprise. her gaze found sebastian's, who was beside kimi. "did you know?"

"i invited him," sebastian grinned his trademark smile. "i gave him no choice."

"and i helped," mick piped up. "he couldn't say no."

"eh, alright, alright," kimi waved off. "enough."

from there, isabel moved onto the rest of the group, greeting each of them with a fond smile. she'd even stopped in front of max and offered him a small greeting before moving on. however, that did prompt a conversation starter for later on during the dinner when almost everyone had at least finished one drink.

"SO, ISABEL," DANIEL STARTED, effectively bringing everyone's attention to himself. with pretty much everyone a little bit tipsy now ( except for kimi who was unnoticeably drunk ), he decided to bring up the rumours that had been circling the paddock since roughly baku. he had started every cursed conversation during the night and apparently she was the target of this one. "you've heard the rumours, right?"

"huh?" isabel hummed from her spot in between sebastian and mick. she set her wine glass back down on the table. "what rumours?"

"no," charles groaned, "we do not need to talk about this here."

pierre grinned, "no, we definitely do."

"basically," daniel continued, "everyone thinks that you and max—"

charles moved his hands to cover arthur's ears.

"—fucked."

isabel spluttered almost instantly, her eyes wide as she stared at daniel in shock. she couldn't find the words. and she most certainly couldn't look diagonally to her right because that's where max was seated. max's reaction was similar to hers, yet his mouth dropped open as he processed what his ex-teammate just said.

"sorry?" isabel blinked a few times. "the paddock thinks what?"

daniel burst out laughing. "they're more ruthless than the media, don't you think?"

arthur removed charles' hands from his ears. "i heard it, you know," he said to his older brother. "and ew, can we not talk about my sister's sex life?"

isabel sunk her burning face into her hands. "there is no sex life to discuss," she let her body slide down in her chair as if the floor beneath her would swallow her whole. "i didn't—"

"we know, we know," daniel laughed, "don't worry. it's just really funny."

"i'd place a million bets on it that it'd never happen," carlos said.

lando, beside him, turned to his ex-teammate and shook his head. "no way, mate."

"max, you're awfully quiet," isabel brought up as she finally looked across at him. "help me out here."

"i want no part in this," max rubbed the sides of his face. "some of the people in the paddock are stupid. if it's not the media, i do not care." and isabel couldn't help but inwardly agree with him because he did have a point. it was a little funnier now that no one was completely sober, and that was probably for the best. if daniel had mentioned it to isabel when she was sober, she'd be finding out who started it in a heartbeat.

"i cannot believe you brought that up in front of my brothers, daniel," isabel lifted her balled-up napkin and threw it at him, hitting him on the chin. "degenerate fuck."

daniel's laugh only made everyone else laugh. kimi and sebastian had turned to each other and were muttering under their breath. isabel couldn't hear them properly, but she did hear kimi say, 'the paddock hasn't changed much, eh?'

"to be fair, belle," george said from the other end of the table beside alex. "i thought you knew. would've said it to you otherwise."

noah waved his hand, "let them talk. it's pretty funny to watch people be that insecure that they make shit up about others."

"here here," fernando raised his glass, which prompted everyone else to repeat him and clink their glasses with each other.

x

AS THE EVENING DREW on into the later end of the night, people had started to leave.

"thank you again, kimi," isabel couldn't help but thank the finn a million times for showing up. she didn't think she was going to see him anytime soon unless she took intiative and flew to switzerland herself.

"eh," kimi shrugged for the hundredth time that night. "if it was anyone else, i would have said no." unless it was sebastian, mick or isabel, he knew he'd never show up. not when he could enjoy his time away from the sport he once deemed a hobby and could be with his family instead. "and free alcohol and party is an immediate yes."

"i am not surprised," she giggled. "are you staying for the weekend?" she asked, and he shrugged again.

"i don't know. i won't be at the track, though," he grimaced, and she didn't blame him. when she left at the end of the year and didn't have a team to return with, she probably wouldn't show up either. the media is like vultures attacking a dead animal. and isabel didn't want to be the dead animal, and clearly neither did kimi.

with a few more goodbyes, it was just the leclerc siblings, max, daniel and lando. sebastian and kimi were going to go drink at the hotel bar apparently, which really didn't surprise isabel too much.

"we headin' back?" daniel asked as they stood together.

"you guys go ahead," isabel nodded before gesturing to the table. "i'll grab the rest and meet you in the lobby."

"are you sure?" charles asked. "we can help."

"no, no," she shook her head, "it's okay."

when she thought everyone had left, she turned to the table and put the leftover cake back in the box before grabbing the bag that held a few gifts that some of the drivers had brought with them. most of the drivers had brought alcohol that had been opened throughout the night.

"happy birthday," a voice startled her, and turning around, she noticed that max was still standing there.

she picked up the box. "what is it in dutch?" she surprised herself by asking.

max looked equally as surprised. "there's a . . . there's a few different ones," he said, hands in the pockets of his black jacket. "but one is fijne verjaardag," the accent slipped from his lips so fluidly that it sounded like it came from an entirely different person. she had a feeling that spending a few years around daniel had changed a lot of his speech patterns.

"fijne verjaardag," isabel repeated slowly. max couldn't help but chuckle at how much her own accent was interfering with the pronunciation. "stop laughing at me."

"i'm not," max denied as she walked towards him since he was in the direction of the door that led out from the private area to the elevator.

"you were," isabel rolled her eyes.

"whatever," he rolled his eyes back at her before pressing the elevator button. when the doors opened and they stepped inside, that strange feeling washed over isabel again. it had the last time she was in an elevator with him, and it was happening again now.

"can we talk about the paddock thing?" isabel asked quietly a few seconds into the elevator going down to the lobby.

max shrugged. "what is there to say? they're always making shit up, isabel. you know that." when she said nothing, he sighed and went for a different approach. "we know that nothing happened," he grimaced at his wording.

"yes," isabel nodded immediately.

"and that's all that matters," max continued. "who gives a shit about that bullshit? we're here to race, not deal with childish rumours."

a ghost of a smile danced across her lips at what he said. "you are right," she decided.

"i usually am."

isabel scoffed, "bullshit."

x

INSTAGRAM — ISABEL.LECLERC

isabel.leclerc: birthday week <3

comments . . .

user1: happy birthday !! you look amazing

user2: i forget youre all rich as fuck and then i see the last slide

user3: I SEE MICK AND SEB <3

user4: i dont even want to think about what gifts she got
↳ user4: shes a multi-millionaire and so are her friends 😭
↳ user5: and i just KNOW that seb spoiled her

danielricciardo: HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIDDO !! LOVE YA :)

user6: did you guys hear the rumour???
↳ user7: what
↳ user6: APPARENTLY KIMI FLEW TO CANADA TO CELEBRATE HER BIRTHDAY WITH EVERYONE
↳ user7: nah no way

arthur_leclerc: ❤️

lorenzotl: ❤️❤️
↳ arthur_leclerc: you had to put an extra one didnt you
↳ lorenzotl: :)
↳ charles_leclerc: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
↳ arthur_leclerc: ...
↳ lorenzotl: youre not better than us
↳ pascale.leclerc.355: boys.

landonorris: haha youre old
↳ user8: youre literally 23 soon

sebastianvettel: 💛

user9: race week and birthday week? shes living her best life

x

feels like my body is going through a fucking war of attrition rn (i was sick a few weeks ago and was fine for like a week and now i cant stop coughing and my chest and throat hurts and im lightheaded) so yeah i love a good war of attrition (shoutout modern history)

just realised in the next chapter that im gonna be referencing the toto vs christian cHaNgE yOuR fUCkInG cAr cause canadian gp