Chapter Text
The two tedious weeks of countless, frustrating exams were over, albeit crawling by slower than Briatore running a mile.
Their group chats had been filled to the brim with complaints, whines and dread when their tests approached, now it was filled with memes and joyous celebratory emojis. When the torturous time was finally over, it felt like cheers could be heard from across the country.
Toto Wolff stood in front of the entire school, sat in clean rows, anticipating the speech yet to come.
“Firstly, I would like to congratulate every one of you, for the immense effort being put into all of your exams. This time of the year is very hard on everyone, especially in this heat, so I appreciate the effort each one of you put into revising and preparing.”
He rattled on for a while, about the dangerously warm weather and the tests.
“Lastly, now that the GCSEs and A-Levels are now over, your current head boy and girl, along with the vice head boy and girl, will be stepping down as they leave for university, so the lower sixth will have their applications open starting today. Then, we will have a whole school speech from each candidate, and we will have a vote to decide.”
“I hope you all enjoy your rest, eat lots of ice cream, and get excited since there’s two weeks left until summer holidays.”
He wrapped up the assembly, and students filed out the door, discussing not very discretely about the new potential heads pupils of the school.
George followed his friends, who were chatting away as usual. Some of them were considering applying for head boy, and obviously, he was too.
The position, although unimportant on the surface, was a vital part of why FIA was held in such regard. The school was known for producing some of the most famous people, most notably, the majority of head boys and girls in the past.
They were also practically the second in command next to Toto, they were in charge of moderating a lot of things, their social pages and the community wall, for example. They had a say in the biggest changes that the school would get, they were the head of the entire student body.
This wasn’t just some internal school thing, sponsors and big brands look out for people in this role, by seeing who was the best out of the upper sixth utilising this system. Therefore, the competition is always extremely intense.
It wasn’t a secret that they all knew what had happened last year. Nico and Lewis, who had been fighting for the position, tore the friend group right down the middle. It’d been a huge disaster.
Lewis had won that battle, not after causing some irreparable damage.
Everyone had made it very clear that this would not happen again this year, but you could never be sure. Especially since both George and Max were applying this year, being jokingly referred to as ‘baby brocedes’.
“George, have you got your application done yet?” Alex sidled over, avoiding Max who was being wrangled away by Lando. George figured this was planned by the two, possibly an attempt to not have a reenactment of the incident last year.
“Yeah, I finished it ages ago, what about it?” He responded casually, trying to be quiet that Max didn’t overhear.
“So… you know, just, last year, Lewis and Nico and stuff.” Alex continued, looking over every two seconds to glance at Lando, who was shading returning his glances.
George raised his eyebrows. “You guys are not slick, you know.”
“Shut up, we just really don’t want brocedes number two, especially since it’s our last year all together.” He was shushed by George’s elbow to the ribs.
“It’s not like it will happen again, it’s common knowledge that Toto favours Max over me, he’s been wanting him as head boy since year ten or something.” George shrugged, trying to pretend like saying this didn’t feel like an internal knife to his stomach.
Alex paused for a second to think of an appropriate reply to that. “George, you know that’s not true, you’re like, his favourite, for sure.”
“Don’t lie to make me feel better Alex.” He sighed, turning to face Alex fully, slowing down as the rest of the group carried on. “I know I’m just fighting for deputy head boy at this point. I don’t want any of you to take sides like last year.”
“George- You can’t be sure-”
“I’m very sure, I’m willing to do this for the everyone’s sake. Now let’s go catch up.”
Alex looked like he was going to say something else, but George already sped up again and caught up with the others, leaving him no choice but to stop the conversation and leave it for another time.
Back in the common room, George looked over his application. His record had always been squeaky clean and flawless, he was exceptional in practically every category you could want. Of course, what he’d said to Alex was no lie, everyone knew that Max had been the favourite from their year no matter how much Toto tried to convince them otherwise.
When they were offered prefect roles in year eleven, the first one he’d asked was Max, but only when he refused, did that role fall onto George.
That left a sour taste in his mouth every time he thought about it. No matter how much George tried to ignore it, he’d tried to be okay with it, but he couldn’t, like he should’ve been. Max was his friend after all. They had their fair share of fights but that was all in the past.
Lewis and Nico, when they’d been fighting last year, had begun the feud way before their exams, they stopped talking at first, then gradually started to drift away, taking their friends with them. Some people took sides, some didn’t, and everything was a shit storm. It got so bad that Toto himself had to step in.
There was no way George would let such a thing happen for a second time, so he may as well accept his fate of being second to Max for the proverbial greater good.
But what did Max Verstappen have that he didn’t?
What was he not doing well enough?
“George Russell. Please come to my office promptly, thank you.”
Toto’s voice ran through the speakers like a lightning strike, shooting George right out of his thoughts and onto his feet. Everyone turned to look at him questioningly. He could only shrug and look as puzzled as they did.
”I swear, if he’s gonna just give you more work, I’ll punch him myself.” Alex promised as he waved goodbye.
The walk to his office felt longer than it actually was, with every step George had more and more questions in his head. The empty corridors only served for more confusion, why ask him to go when it was lesson time for the majority of the school?
He knocked on the deep mahogany door of his doom and despair.
“Come in.”
Toto was sat on his sleek black office chair, leaning forwards like a shady mafia boss. He was serious, by the looks of it, face stern and set like stone. His office was clean and tidy, a few shelves with binders and folders, a pen holder with plain black pens. It was how you’d expect an average office with zero personality.
“Um… Mr Wolff, can i help you?” George said in the politest tone he could, putting on a customer service smile, acting unfazed by this summon out of nowhere.
“George, so, about the position.” He paused. “I know you have been working under me since year eleven as a prefect, and I know how exceptional you are. But… well, Max, you see.” He tried his best to soften the blow when revealing the information, George could tell immediately, he frowned.
“His father has been a long time sponsor of the school, Jos has done many things for us. Along with Max’s records and achievements, which, if I may say, are much more appealing for us as a school.” Another pause, George opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off. “I’m not saying that he will be the head boy by default, no. The school vote is held for a reason, but, just to confirm, you do know, that teachers can weigh in on their opinions for this?”
Toto straightened, looking pleased with how he delivered the whole thing. George however, wasn’t pleased in the slightest. Quite a few times he’d wanted to just interrupt him.
“Yes, I’m aware. I know Max has been the favourite this year, but you have to understand, Mr Wolff-” Toto spoke up, cutting his sentence off. “I know, you need this position, you don’t have the same backing as most other students do, yes, but I’m thinking of the school image here, George. So, I’m sorry if the results won’t be what you wanted it to be. But nothing in life is fair, and talent is always more appealing, and a better headline. That’s just how the world works.”
“But when you offered prefect roles, he was the one who didn’t want the responsibility, he was the one who turned it down. I’ve been doing all this work for you for what, two years now, for nothing? And that’s just officially, by the way, you had me doing more than any other person in this school since I joined, in year seven, for six years now-”
“George, please, you have my thanks and also my full support, but unless you have an overwhelming number of votes from the school, I see no reason to choose you above Max.” Toto said calmly, placing his hands on the table, looking like this was the deal of the century.
George was about to say something, angry, he opened his mouth, then waited for a second, then closed it. There was no point arguing when Toto’s mind was set.
“I believe we’re done here. You may return to your free period, goodbye George. I will enjoy reading your application.”
He turned around, leaving George no option but to leave the room, shocked and unbearably irate, feeling the immense urge to throw or punch something, maybe Toto’s head.
The walk back to the common room was shorter than he imagined, nothing but blinding rage in his mind.
“George! What did Toto want?” Alex piped up, seeing him sit back down on the sofa, crossing both his arms and legs.
“That… asshole. He was talking to me, you won’t believe-” He looked out the corner of his eye and spotted Max listening in, and decided to not elaborate further on anything. “I’ll tell you later. Top secret.”
Alex raised an eyebrow, tilting his head, probably debating in his head whether or not that response was a lie, but settled on just sighing and sinking into the cushions.
Max turned away too.
George leaned back, propping his computer up and decided to lock in and finish the application anyway. Unlike what he’d told Alex after the assembly, no matter how hopeless it was, he wasn’t going to give up when he’d sacrificed so much of his time and energy fighting for this.
He racked his brain through what Max had even done at school. First, he was the one that set up the whole esports club and team, leading to a rookie year victory for them in a tournament, but Lando also helped immensely. Second, he’s the face of the school’s co-curriculars in general, being astounding in pretty much everything he did, sports, volunteering, running a help desk, chess, even rubiks cubes, for god’s sake. Third, he was already somewhat of a celebrity already, being a popular streamer who was good at almost every game ever made.
George would’ve gone on, but thinking more about Max’s life was just making his mood worse and worse, instead, he returned the focus onto what was ahead of him, that being his laptop open on his document.
It had been finished even before the exams, but now, it seemed so lacklustre compared to all the illustrious things Max had achieved.
He stood up, taking his laptop with him, the room was slowly suffocating him, and Max being in the vicinity did not help whatsoever.
“I’m going. Need to find Susie.” George half whispered to Alex, trying his best to not draw any attention. The latter nods, not drawing his eyes away from some funny dog video on his phone.
Susie’s office was right down the corridor from their common room, making it easy for him to slip away quickly.
In all honesty, George had no idea if Susie shared her husband’s views on the whole thing, and he was putting all of his luck on that she didn’t. She had little to no interactions with Max and knew him only from Toto, so she should have no inclination to choose him over George. If his logic was right.
At least he’d have one person on his side.
“Su- I mean, Mrs Wolff?” He said while knocking politely on her door.
“Come in.” Her voice replied, a lot nicer than Toto’s from earlier.
The office was neat and tidy, cozy looking with shelves surrounding the desk in the middle, all filled with books and some potted plants. There was no doubt she was the ‘chill teacher’ of the school.
There was a board in a small gap between the shelves, where Susie had pinned cards and notes from her students that had graduated. Some of the greenery that decorated the room were gifts, there were paperweights on the desk which George remembered giving to her, and she kept group pictures with her past classes tucked between the spaces on the board. It was hard to not love a teacher like her.
“George, how are you? What brings you to my office?” Her voice was polite and friendly, exactly the opposite of her husband’s.
“I’m good… I just wanted some advice, for my application, and stuff.” He hesitated, unsure of whether to tell her or not. But he was already here, might as well. “Mr Wolff told me that pretty much, no matter what, he was going to choose Max. So the rest of us would just be applying for deputy.”
“He- That’s what he said?”
George nodded.
His meeting with Susie had been fulfilling, her praise and encouragement was heartwarming to hear, especially since he rarely heard anything remotely close to that from Toto.
The common room was empty by now, no doubt people had returned to the dorms already. So George made his way back.
THE boysss (exam emotional damage recovery)
landito
soooooooo
post exam celebration!
unfortunately i dont think we’ll be able to do a party
the olive bear
WHAT NOOOO
WHY??
innocent angel
??? lando???
dan ric
lando, what?? i had ideas for party games too
landito
becauuuuuse, our lord and saviour lewis himself
has organised us a group outing to thorpe park!
smooooth asf
whats that?
bee-astrii boy
it’s this theme park thing
lando’s been on about it for ages
landito
yeah!!! it’s really good
i’ve been twice and its lowkey fantastic
everyone okay with this sunday?
sir lewis
i tried to fit it in for a day when everyone’s free
pint of francola
what about the tickets?
sir lewis
me and nico have bought them all
pint of francola
what???
thirty two tickets?
also nico
yes
dont worry
we planned this
sir lewis
think of it as a present to everyone
since it’s our last two weeks together
and since we both got proper contracts now
we can afford it
landito
didnt have to remind us…
man
cant believe we wont have u guys next year
how will we survive?
i destroyed the car!!!
we dont deserve u guys
Master chef - LET HIM COOK!
THORPE PARK??
IVE BEEN WANTING TO GO FOR AGES
PIERRE WOULDNT SHUT UP ABOUT IT
not pg10
holy shit
lewis and nico are you guys sure
we can all pay for our tickets you know
sir lewis
we already bought them
trust me
it’s fine
kachow
lol arvid is scared of rollercoasters
arvinator
???
lies
i’m not
also nico
it’s not just all rollercoasters
theres a lot of other stuff
al albono
this is crazy
thank you both so much
insanity
sir lewis
gotta make the most of the time we have left
make some good memories
since us upper sixth will be off on our own trip in july
and sorting out uni stuff later
so could be our last big gathering
also nico
for sure
nando’s
they also wanted to make up for the brocedes shit
so theres a motive
sir lewis
shut up fernando
or i’ll revoke your ticket
nando’s
my mouth has been shut
sir lewis
but he’s not wrong
it’s a thanks as well
for everyone putting up with us after what happened
we’re both sorry for that
hulk nico
lewis, nico, you guys could've told us
we would’ve liked to pay our share
also nico
no
whats done has been done
sir lewis
let me know if anyone can’t make it
but see you all on sunday then
George scoffed, it was such a typical Lewis and Nico thing to do. Especially as the so-called responsible ones of their friends. He put his phone in his pocket, looking down while walking almost made him go right into a ditch.
The dorm was busy, as he’d expected, people had gotten bored of the countless games of Mario Kart they had played during the exams weeks that the Nintendo was abandoned in favour of watching Max play a racing game on the Xbox. His two cats had been let loose, Jimmy was zooming around, making Fernando scowl. Sassy had been kidnapped by Alex, curled on his lap and purring.
Yuki was running all over the place, ingredients in his arms almost falling if Pierre hadn’t caught them. Those two were no doubt in charge of a grand meal to celebrate, while Daniel and Charles both obediently cut up vegetables for them.
The year tens, along with the two year elevens were making a dominoes trail. It began from somewhere George couldn’t even see, presumably from one of their dorm rooms that were on the above floor, all the way down the stairs to where Arvid and Liam were trying to plan a design around the bean bags.
George flopped down next to Alex, who turned to face him, while pushing a glass of water in front of him. “So what did you talk about with Susie?” George sighed, he’d expected that.
“You’ll find out soon enough. Just something about the application.” Alex didn’t look pleased with that response. “You’ve been weird since talking with Toto.”
He said pointedly, to which George just shrugged and took a sip of water.
They stayed silent after that, George lost in his thoughts while Alex took his time playing with Sassy, who was attempting to swat at his face. The comfortable moment of doing nothing and just enjoying themselves was interrupted by Kimi, who bounded over, telling them all to go watch the domino chain get pushed.
Yuki ushered them all to dinner afterwards, chatting animatedly about the seasoning while Pierre tried to shut him up, slapping a hand over his mouth, embarrassed.
George was about to sit down and eat before a notification popped up on everyone’s phones at the same time.
The FIA Wall
user00000 @user000000
@AllMembers
There has been an investigation launched upon Toto Wolff by the school board for allegedly manipulating votes, embezzling school funds, and neglecting his responsibilities by pushing it onto students under him.
This has been brought to light by a student who wished to remain anonymous, but they provide that Wolff has been manipulating the head girl and boy votes to appeal to sponsors since at least two years ago. Although the position is not the biggest worry of the board, they fear that this presents an issue in unfair competition and potential sabotage to some students’ futures and opportunities.
The newest piece of evidence strongly suggests that he has been planning for Max Verstappen to be the next head boy, no matter the decision of the school vote or the school board.
All current and past prefects still attending FIA who worked or are working under Wolff are officially requested for a meeting with a member of the school board, as well as the current head boys and girls.
As of now, his duties as principal have now been suspended until further notice, the deputy head Susie Wolff will not take over due to her personal relations to Toto Wolff, and instead, Andrea Stella will take over his responsibilities.
George looked up from his phone, everyone around him all stared at each other, Lewis and Nico stood up.
He looked down again, replies were appearing under the post like crazy.
replies:
➤user28448 @user28448: what the fuck?? so brocedes was rigged from the start?
➤user348462 @user348462: isnt this account the same one that posted the brocedes doc?? how didn’t it get banned?
➤user584777 @user584777: holy fucking shit
➤user4 @user4: whats happening what in the fucking hell
…
“What the actual fuck? Toto Wolff of all people?” Lando exclaimed, so loud he almost made George jump. Lewis and Nico were bewildered too, Alex stared for a few seconds before turning his head to George.
“George. You did this, didn’t you?” He accused, drawing everyone’s attention.
“George? What do you know?” Lewis followed up, walking over to him with Nico trailing behind. George raised both hands. On the side, he could see Max in shock.
“I’ll explain everything.”