INVISIBLE STRING ☆ DANIEL RICCIARDO

nineteen

SILVERSTONE, UK; JULY 1st 2022

song of the chapter:
let go - frou frou
so let go and jump in, whatcha waiting for?
it's alright.

The Silverstone Grand Prix used to be Islas least favorite time of the year. The crowds it brings in always end up flooding to her block in London and created so much unnecessary traffic and blockage of roads. Throughout the years though, she had managed to learn to navigate and exactly how early to leave for any appointment she had on said weekend.

Which meant that when she drove down to the circuit from her apartment this time, she was perfectly on time. She had lived in London long enough to know exactly how to predict the traffic. Her only issue now was the parking lot, it took her about fifteen minutes to find a spot but she found one.

Isla felt extremely proud of herself about not having to rush this time and that Luisinha would not be throwing any punches at her.

The paddock was filled with so many Mercedes and McLaren merch, seeing as it was McLarens home race and Lewis and George's home race. Most of all, there was so many signs for Daniel especially, since it was his birthday today. Isla knew she needed to do something for him in return for her perfect birthday gift, since she didn't have enough time to actually get him anything just yet.

She did know though that whatever it was, it needed to be perfect.

"Oh my God, are you sick?" Luisinha questions as she walks towards where they were sat outside the McLaren hospitality. "Did you set your clocks back to earlier times?"

Isla rolls her eyes at her best friend and her chuckling boyfriend. "Shut it or I'll get Daniel to beat your nose in again."

"Hey, what did I do?" Lando exclaims, subconsciously rubbing his nose bridge where Daniel had hit him with the hopper yesterday. It was probably one of Islas top highlights of all the races she's been to so far.

"Speaking of, where is the noisy bastard?" Isla questions, small smile on her face.

"Not here yet, we're surprising him down in the garage when he does though."

Isla takes the empty seat across from the couple and treats herself to their breakfast plates, to which Lando obviously more than complained about. He leads the girls down to the garage a little while later when Amani arrives, getting everyone ready for the surprise.

The whole McLaren team was lined up around the garage, from the entrance all the way to the car exit on the other side. Lando was stood in the center by the cake along with Zak and Andreas.

Only minutes later and the whole garage was erupting into song when the Honey Badger himself made his appearance, Isla didn't think she had ever seen a smile so wide across his face. And it somehow seemed to get impossibly wider when he spotted her singing along with everyone else.

After everyone had dispersed, she finally makes her way towards him. "How're you feeling, Mr. Birthday Boy?"

"Fine, I guess. Feels like the older I get, the less excited I am for birthdays." he replies with a chuckle, leaning back onto one of the engineers work stations.  "Can you tell I'm lying?"