INVISIBLE STRING ☆ DANIEL RICCIARDO

twenty-two

LEGAZPI, PHILIPPINES; JULY 11th 2022

dialogues in italics will be in filipino!

song of the chapter
haze - 5 seconds of summer

Isla had not been back in the Philippines in months, and it felt absolutely euphoric. Her mother had picked her up from the airport and it was safe to say that both women were beyond emotional, Ada had cried for hours while she held her daughter that night. Isla couldn't remember the last time she had been this well fed and cared for.

She had spent the last few days with her aunts and her cousins, she would take the children on days out to the beach and they would all go surfing— more accurately, Isla and her oldest cousin, Lila, would surf and then attempt to teach the children. They failed more often than not.

The Philippines felt more like home to her than anywhere else in the world, as much as she lived her dad and their home in Dubai, it just wasn't the same. She loved the island life, being able to live in her swimsuits and walk around barefoot all the time. She loved the simplicity of it all.

Which is why she hated the fact that she wasn't able to come back more often— definitely on her list of things to improve at from now on though.

Isla was currently sat at the kitchen counter with her mother as she helped her make dinner, they were packing and folding up dumplings tonight. Another thing she really missed was the food and especially her mothers recipes, everything just tasted ten times better at home.

"You've gotten a lot better at this." Ada notes as she watches Islas fingers twist around the dough. "Have you actually been using the recipes I send you?"

"How else do you think I've been getting my nutrients, mama?" Isla replies, partly joking but for the most part it was true. The only food she cooked was through the recipes her mother sent her every week.

The food was definitely one of the things she had missed the most about being home, as well as sitting down at the dinner table every night to eat with her whole family. And when she says whole family, she meant it. Her mothers family all lived along the same street, which meant that every night they were all able to come together for dinner.

Tonight's location was their house, her aunts and cousins and grandparents would be arriving in a couple hours time.

"How's that beautiful boy you told me about?" her mother inquires, washing her hands after laying the last dumpling in the pot.

Isla let's out a chuckle, her mother was the only person so far she had confided her true feelings to. She hadn't gotten the chance to go over anything with Amani and Luisinha, the whole focus being on their Portuguese friend and the horrible situation she had been flung into.

They had called Lando as soon as they had gotten back to their hotel that day and Luisinha had managed through her tears to tell him the full story, her friends holding her tight as she let it all out. Lando was beyond furious when he heard, all but demanding that Luisinha goes to Austria that weekend so they could talk this through and figure out the best way to approach this together.

Lando had also make sure to check in both Isla and Amani, to ensure that neither of them had been receiving the same treatment, especially since they'd been seen around the track quite a few times too. As horrible as it sounded, they had assured him that they were used to the scrutiny of the public. They were both older than Luisinha and had been in the spotlight for much longer than she has, it was an unspoken addition to the job.