Minefield of Mirrors

-27-

'This is freaking genius!' Iris yelled as she was looking at Emma's laptop in front of her. Tears were leaving her eyes as she laughed loudly because of the challenge Emma recorded with Max.

The most ridiculous questions about the team were asked and if he answered the question wrongly, he had to draw a stick from a bowl that was hiding some hilarious pranks or disgusting food he had to eat. Oh, revenge was just so sweet.

Emma clapped her hands and looked hopefully at her friend. 'Yeah? You're happy with the results?'

'Girl, this was even more than I could've asked for! This is a-ma-zing!'

Iris looked another time at the scene where Max had to taste the Australian vegemite again. Seeing him gagging because of the awful taste, was the thing that made Iris almost die from laughter.

The two girls hugged each other quickly before they looked at the screen one more time where they saw Max being splashed under Red Bull because of the last wrong answer of the challenge.

'I'm still so surprised he actually did everything that was on those sticks. I mean, he even called Helmut just to ask if his ass looked fat in these race suits or not, just because it was written on one of those sticks. He would have never even done that if it wasn't because of this agreement with you. So thank you for that.' Emma said.

'I have to thank you, girl! This is the best material I've ever seen in my life. You did an outstanding job!'

A sound travelled through the paddock, which indicated that the race was only an hour away from happening. Oh yes, it was going to be the first race of the season. The moment every single team in this paddock had been working towards. Who was going to get the first points of the season and which car turned out to be so much better in terms of race pace? Would some cars get a DNF? Right now it was still a big question mark, but within three hours, everything would become clear.

Emma closed her laptop and took it under her arm. 'I'll edit it tonight and then it will be on the website by tomorrow morning.'

'You are the absolute best!' Iris put her hand above her eyes to block out the sun that was shining on her face as they were standing on the little terrace in front of the motorhome. 'You are a genius and no one can tell me otherwise!'

'Iris, could you give us a quick explanation?' Someone asked a couple of metres away.

Iris turned around and saw her colleague Brent with some spreadsheets in his hand. She excused herself to Emma and quickly moved over to him to walk through some irregularities she had found earlier today. She discussed her findings with him and apparently, he had taken a better look at it.

After a short moment to talk some things and different solutions through, Iris made her way through the paddock, on her way to AlphaTauri where she would get some other paperwork so she could compare some things to Red Bull's. In that way, it seemed quite perfect that the team had a little sister like that in the paddock.

The voice of Thomas got her out of her thoughts quickly and she stiffened right away. She looked next to her and saw how he ran up to her. Oh no... Here we go again...

'Ross... Please, coul-' He started.

'No. Leave me alone Thomas.' She wanted to move on again, but he stopped her as soon as he got next to her again.

'Ross...'

Iris turned sideways so she could look him in the eyes while pointing her finger at him. 'Cut this shit. We talked, so it's done now. And cut out the nickname too.'

'But you always loved our nicknames.' Thomas sputtered.

'Right. LovED.' The frustration was building inside Iris again. 'I told you I don't want to see you again, so please just don't walk up to me again. We're done. We're over. We just share a history and that's simply it. I moved on, so it's about damn time you'll do that as well. Now if you would like to excuse me, I have to get going.'