A new life in Monaco
Oscar decided to not come to the track on Saturday, but that he will be there for the race on Sunday. While waiting for third practice, Lando’s lawyers called him, telling him the best plan to get Nicole, Julia and Chloe away from their alpha. Australia having it’s own laws, stating a loophole to let Lando take custody of Julia and Chloe from Nicole, then followed by him calling the mating between Nicole and Chris invalid, followed by him giving custody back to Nicole while keeping alpha protection over all three of them. Lando himself didn’t even really understand why it would be legal this way, but in the end, he didn’t care as long as it did work. The best of this whole thing was that they were able to do everything that Saturday, including getting it notarized by a lawyer in Melbourne, without informing Chris at all.
For McLaren, the Australian Grand Prix ended well, Lando in 3rd and Daniel in 5th, as did for Ferrari, Charles in 4th and Carlos in 6th. Max won again. Pierre and his team mate Esteban collided with each other after a restart for the last lap, throwing pieces of their cars and the barrier all over the track. Logan had the bad luck to be directly behind them, having to take a detour over the gravel and finishing second last, only Zhou behind him, who cut his tire on the debris of the crash and limped past the finish line. George finished in 9th and Lewis in 14th after a way too slow pit stop. They definitely wouldn’t have a nice evening.
Lando and Oscar had cancelled their plans of visiting the Great Barrier Reef and then fly directly to the next race in Japan. Lando had organized them first class flights to Abu Dhabi and then to Nice, organizing them door to door transport as well, not wanting them to hassle through a busy airport, especially with Nicole still being scared Chris would show up. She only managed to calm down when Oscar opened the front door of their apartment.
“Charles, one of the other racers, I mean, his mum bought some stuff for the girls. We have two bedrooms over here; you can share them between the three of you however you want. She also got you some nesting material.” Lando said, opening the doors to the bedrooms.
“Thank you so much.” Nicole said to him, tears in her eyes.
“No need. We are family.” Lando said, handing her a key to the apartment. “You can come and go whenever you want, we have appointments for the insurances and with a school tomorrow.”
“A school?” Nicole asked surprised.
“Well, Julia definitely needs to go, I’m not sure if you want Chloe to go to a kindergarten?”
“Uhm, well, she didn’t go to one in Melbourne, but it’s probably better with the language and being new.”
“The school we can look at is an international school, they know the girls don’t speak French, yet. They will be able to learn there.”
The next morning, Nicole made sure the girls looked good before they left, making a quick stop at the insurance office before going to the school. Nicole had to admit that the school was beautiful and everything the principal said sounded really well.
“Thank you for showing us the school, Monsieur Dupont. I will contact you tomorrow with our decision.” Lando said, shaking the principal’s hand.
“With pleasure, Mr. Norris. We would be very happy to have your family’s children with us. You already received our e-mail regarding the tuition, I suppose?”
“I did, thank you very much.” Lando said and they got into the car. “I would like to show you something else.” Lando said when he started the car and drove a couple streets over.
He stopped in front of a light green house with white trimmings and lavender bushes in the front.
“It has 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a nice little yard to play in, it doesn’t have a separate dining room, but the living room should be big enough for a table. Down the street lives the mother of another racer, Pascale, with her five-year-old, Arthur, we thought maybe they could offer some company. If you want to, of course.”
“You … you want to give me a house?”
“Yes. I want you and the girls to have a roof over your heads.” Lando told her. “Did you think you’d stay in the guestroom forever?”
“No, I – I just thought I’d get a job somewhere and then get a little apartment or something.”
“Well, if you want to work, of course you can work. We just thought it would be a little bit nicer here, the girls can walk to school, you have a garden and it’s just a fifteen-minute walk to our apartment.”
“I will get a job. I want to pay for food and all the normal things we need.”
“Alright. Of course, you can do that. I just want you to know that there is no hurry, and if you ever need anything, you know where to find us.” Lando smiled. “Let’s go home? I’m sure you, Oscar and the girls are ready for some online shopping, are you not?”
“Maybe a little.” Nicole laughed.
Oscar, Nicole, Chloe and Julia spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch with a computer, shopping furniture and other things for the new house.
A lot of things happened during the rest of the week. Lando called the school, starting the enrolment for the girls. Julia would start on Monday. He also got someone to do some painting at the new house. He also had some online meetings with the team as well as an interview. They picked up the girl’s new uniforms on Friday, together with some school material.
On Monday, Lando, Oscar and Nicole drove the girls to school, Nicole bringing them to the entrance, before they drove to Nicole’s new house, waiting for the furniture delivery. The painters had been there on Thursday and Friday. The company arrived just before nine, starting to unload the huge truck of furniture. Lando had paid extra for them to put up the furniture as well, keeping an eye on the unloading outside while Oscar and Nicole were inside, guiding the furniture to the correct rooms.
Shortly before 1pm, Lando left to pick up the girls, as well as getting them some food. They sat down in the backyard, having Chinese take away. The furniture was put up shortly after they finished their food and the company was leaving. The girls stormed through the house and made Lando push around the furniture in their rooms a little while Oscar and Nicole were downstairs, unpacking dishes, cutlery, decorations, curtains and started running the first load of laundry, towels and linens. After a while they switched, Nicole helping the girls with the clothes and couple of other things they had while Lando called Max for help to get up the curtain rods. Max brought P and a little playpen, putting her in the middle of the living room with some toys.
They went back to the appartement towards dinnertime, all of them pretty tired from the day.
Max’s phone rang just after he put down P, making him hurry out of the room as quickly as possible.
“Hello?” he answered without looking.
“Yes, hi, is this Max?”
“Yes, who’s there?”
“It’s Charles … Leclerc.”
“Oh, yes, sorry I didn’t save your number yet.” Max said, sitting down in the living room. “What’s up?”
“Well actually … I have a question for you …uhm … there is no airline flying to Japan in time for the race … well, at least none that will let me fly on my own … I don’t know when you’re flying or if you go with your own or something, but I just thought –“ there was a crash heard “- merde!”
“Are you alright?” Max asked.
“Yes, yes, all good. I just dropped something.”
“Okay, so if you want to fly with me, we’re flying tomorrow, I could drive us to the airport?”
“What?” Charles asked.
“That is what you wanted to ask, right? If you can fly with us?”
“Well … yes. I’m sorry, if you don’t want to that’s absolutely fine, I’ll find a way.”
“Charles, I already said yes. One thing you should know, it will only be the two of us and Penelope, Lando and Oscar are travelling separately.”
“That is fine for me, thank you.” Charles said and Max was able to hear the smile.
“Alright, I’ll pick you up around 8.30 tomorrow. You’re staying with your mum?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Alright, see you tomorrow.” Max said and hung up.
“Max is taking me on his plane.” Charles said to his mum after hanging up.
“See! I told you he would be nice.”
“Yes, it still feels weird, though. I’m an adult and I’m a Formula 1 racer. I should be able to get to and from tracks on my own, not have to rely on others for transportation.”
“Well, it is not because you don’t want to or the team doesn’t want you to or something, it’s those stupid airline rules that hold you back.”