Chapter Text
Lando stared hard at the thick packet remaining from his group project from before. The worst part was that one of his classmates completed most of the work while he and Max struggled to throw a freaking ball as the poor guy worked on calculating velocity, height, and everything that he didn’t understand.
There was a simple graph he had to complete outlining the trajectory of their horrid throw, with all the calculations done beforehand and to be labelled for each component of the graph.
Lando groaned, pressing the palm of his hand to his face as if grabbing for any new thoughts that would help him.
Still nothing.
But now there was another email stacked on top of his overflowing inbox of unread messages from professors and class updates.
The profile picture looked vaguely familiar, most likely just another classmate. But they had never emailed him before; Lando would probably remember him.
Neat, wavy brown hair that rested tamely atop almost frighteningly pale skin. The boy looked like the quiet type, and Lando had no shame in saying that he was objectively attractive. The type of face that would have girls swooning over him, but, if Lando’s intuition was correct, the personality that would either make them fall harder or scare them away.
He almost looked adorable.
Dear Lando Norris,
Lando raised his eyebrow, face warping into almost disgusted confusion. First, who on Earth wrote that formally to another classmate?
I am aware that you took home our group project to complete; however, I wanted to check if you needed additional assistance with it, as it is long, with schedules and additional classes, making it difficult to push in another assignment.
The ends of Lando’s mouth tilted upwards slightly.
Reach out if you need any help completing it, whether that be calling or sending images of the remaining pages to complete. Have a good rest of your evening.
Lando pressed his fists to his desk, a grin spreading across his face.
Sincerely,
Oscar Piastri
Student at Formula High School | 11th Grade | +1 (###) - ### - ####
Lando blinked at the name. Oscar Piastri, the name felt too familiar. Did he know him elsewhere?
But never mind, just the name, Oscar Piastri was now his lord and savior. Lando let his face collapse to his desk, a sigh of relief escaping his mouth as his fingers dragged to the reply button underneath his rescuer’s email. He had no clue as to anything that was going on with the assignment, and Lando wasn’t ashamed of admitting it. He was more ashamed of telling the classmate that it was fine, and he was going to take it home and complete it for him.
So much for his dignity.
Though Oscar must be busy too. Lando paused at the keyboard, now frowning to himself. He wasn’t going to be that bad of a teammate, especially after what poor… Oscar had to put up with it for at least an hour for the past two days.
Nah, I’m fine, thanks though for asking.
Lando
Lando shut his eyes, hands shaking as he clicked send.
He just doomed both his and Oscar’s grades, and Max couldn’t give two fucks about it after he screwed over his history grade by fumbling their presentation.
On the other hand, Lando was not going to disappoint Oscar as Max let him down, even if it meant getting Max back for the forty-three percent.
Have fun with it then, and I appreciate you stepping up for it.
Have fun, his ass.
Sincerely,
Oscar Piastri
Student at Formula High School | 11th Grade | +1 (###) - ### - ####
~<>~
Lando turned in the project, the graph hard to make out on top of layers upon layers of erased markings, after hours of trying to make out Oscar’s work. But he eventually semi-figured it out, and Lando wanted to apologize to Oscar before he absolutely tanked their grades.
Hopefully, the drawing was so hard to make out that the teacher would just give them the A.
In his physics class, Oscar sat comfortably beside Logan, a person Lando actually recognized from his after-school biker group, at the table smack beside him and Max’s. Now, Lando felt like an idiot for both failing to recognize the boy at first and not even knowing his name. And for how much their teacher seemed to mention or ask him questions, Lando realized he really did have to start paying more attention.
It made Lando feel somewhat better that Oscar seemed hesitant each time to answer, not out of fear but out of a mix of boredom and lack of care for the subject. Still, he actually understood the hieroglyphs, which was a point for him and none for Lando.
Lando knew that he fell for people quickly, like love at first sight wasn’t anything new for him. And Oscar was, again, an objectively attractive person. But he was intelligent too, and that was too much for Lando to process.
“Lando, stop staring at that Oscar, you look creepy, man.”
Max was wincing at him, which said a lot about how much he had to put up with daily.
“How do you know his name?” Lando asked accusingly. “Now that is insanely creepy.”
Max now looked purely disappointed, mouth agape without any words coming out for a solid moment. “How do you not know his name? Who is Paul Aron ?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know?” Lando huffed.
Max scoffed, “Geez, how much do you pay attention to us?” Max replied with fake hurt in his voice. Lando shoved the side of Max’s arm in response, just hard enough that it would make his body wobble in his chair.
Now, even Oscar’s eyes flickered towards them, expression still unreadable. Lando could feel his face go hot with embarrassment, his hands on instinct leaving Max’s body in an instant. He was not going to embarrass himself in front of someone like Oscar, and plus, he wanted to keep his options open, especially after the freshmen who were getting together wouldn’t stop shutting up about their relationships.
Lando paused in his thoughts.
Options… open? What the hell was he thinking about he just met Oscar and didn’t even remember fully meeting him.
He wanted to bury his face in his hands, and would if Oscar weren’t beside him. Lando knew exactly what this meant and what was coming. He thought he had run out of people by now, but apparently not.
“Uh, Lando?” Max asked, nudging Lando roughly. “Earth to Lando?”
“I’m going to fall in love,” Lando wailed quietly, now burying his face in his arms dramatically. He could feel the weight of Max’s judgment or lack of judgment on top of him.
Max chuckled. “Not again.”
The bell rang, with most people, including Max, picking up their bags to leave for their next class. But Lando remained stubborn on his desk, hopeless and helpless.
“But I can’t,” Lando cried. “I just got over my last person.”
“You can get over this person, too; it isn’t the end of the world, Lando. And get up already, your class is in another building, mate.” Max replied, tired. He picked up the collar of Lando’s uniform, dragging him and his chair backwards.
“You’re in my next class,”
“I know, so you better not make me late.”
~<>~
Oscar really was everywhere; he was like a ghost that was beginning to haunt his life without him even knowing. It was going to give Lando a headache, considering how much he was plaguing his mind; it wasn’t for the fact that Oscar was stupidly pleasing to the eye.
But it was actually beginning to get comical. His group, or gang as his peers called it, waited for Logan. Oscar was with him. Was he trying to talk to Charles? Oscar was there first. Was he trying to get lunch? Oscar was in front of him in the lunch.
And the worst part? Lando was also actively looking for Oscar everywhere he went, and he turned up everywhere. At one point, he caught himself frowning when, in computer science, a class that until two weeks ago he had no idea Oscar was in, nor existed, Oscar was absent. According to Logan, he was out conducting research for an outside-of-school program, and that only seemed to worsen things.
Because Oscar was genuinely an amazing student and totally out of his league. It was almost getting annoying, because just when Lando thought that was it with what the poor student was involved in, he was head of another organization. By this point, if someone told him Oscar was secretly the President of the United States, he wouldn’t bat an eyelash.
During their shared free period, Lando’s friends escaped to a hidden set of tables behind the far campus buildings, masked by a thick set of stairs, a relatively abandoned fine arts building. He split off into his circle of Max, George, Alex, and Carlos, fleeing to their table at the far left corner of the group.
But the moment he settled down on the rusty seats of the table, his eyes darted to the opposite side of the area where Logan and Oscar were having their own private discussion near Charles’s circle. Even from afar, his hair still looked incredibly fluffy like that of one of Lando’s golden retrievers while still combed back perfectly–and without gel too.
Lando didn’t care if he was obviously staring at this point–how could he not? Really, Oscar was in every way so perfect.
“Did he get a girlfriend or something?” Carlos asked from behind him. Lando snapped out of it, whipping his head around just before someone could reply.
Max chuckled in amusement. “He wishes that–”
Lando lunged for Max’s throat and clapped his hands around his friend’s mouth. Their friends laughed as Max battled to continue while Lando forced his head down.
“Don’t you dare,” Lando whispered, loosening his hold around his friend’s mouth (although he knew if he was genuinely choking Max, he would have let him know a long time ago).
A stifled laugh escaped Max’s lips through Lando’s fingers. He lowered Lando’s hand gently, now smirking much to Lando’s misery. “I can’t be the only one you are torturing with your crush, mate.” Max hissed back.
Alex shot up, almost pushing George backwards, being in the way of his urgency. His expression grew into a mixture of shock and excitement, whereas George looked just deadpan as Max had, if not more.
“No way you have hidden this from us, Lando,” Alex began, almost sounding offended. “I thought we were friends.”
Carlos, too, looked excited, albeit more tame than Alex. “Hey, only tell us if you feel comfortable with it, alright? I don’t want to feel uncomfortable telling us.”
Alex blinked before settling back into his seat. “Yeah, what he said.”
Lando froze. It felt like all eyes were on him, waiting for his response–even Max, who had known since the day it began, was watching him for entertainment's sake.
If they had put up with every single other crush in the past, including ones amongst them, they would survive another.
“You can tell them,” Lando said in defeat, nudging Max’s side as he let his face sink into the table below.
“It’s the Piastri guy,” Max said calmly, resting his arms on the table as he watched the expressions of the other three warp into something unreadable for Lando. And then the expressions of a few freshmen from the table next to them.
As much as Lando loved the freshmen, he knew that they were absolutely, under zero circumstances, not to be trusted. They were like younger siblings to the rest of their friends, which was amazing until Lando remembered that they were like younger siblings.
Well, shit.
One freshman with thick, curly brown hair stood up in wild excitement and turned around with a smile that scared Lando. “You–!”
“Shut up, Kimi!” his friend yelled, Franco from what Lando could recall, while the taller of the two began glaring at both of them.
“Thanks, Kimi and ‘Co for blowing our cover,” the taller said, annoyed.
“Ollie, you saying that ruined it even more!” Kimi insisted, glaring back
“You just confirmed it, idiot,” another boy said.
“Fuck you, Isack!”
As much as Lando wanted to begin panicking from how easily it spread from one circle to the next, he could only begin laughing from his face hidden from direct view of the freshmen.
“See, he is laughing,” a younger boy added, a voice that Lando genuinely could not recognize.
“Arvid doesn’t he run a gang?” Isack asked, grinning as Arvid’s face dropped.
“He runs a gang?!” the boy, Arvid, cried, like a genuine heart-wrenching cry that ripped straight out of the poor kid’s soul. “Tell my mom that she is wonderful and to never go through my computer because there is absolutely nothing on it.”
A sophomore, Liam, snorted. “What are you, five?”
Lando looked at Max with the most tired expression he could muster, and Max gave him an unapologetic shrug in response. He was going to run him over with his motorcycle at least fifteen times after school or the free period ended. And the freshman, to make sure it didn’t get out for good measure, but he was sure that a murder charge would be waiting at his doorstep if he did.
“This isn’t going to stay that much of a secret, isn’t it?” Lando muttered, defeated. By this point, stuff like this had happened so much that he became a yearly staple of his early education–bound to happen at some point in his junior year.
“If it helps, I doubt anyone is going to believe the freshman over you, Lando,” Carlos added with a weak smile. It did not help in the slightest with the muted sick feeling growing inside of Lando. If it had been in his freshman year he would be throwing up, so at least there was some growth in that aspect.
“Is anyone going to believe the freshman at all, really?” George asked, sparing a judgmental glance at the kids beside them. They were now whispering amongst themselves, and Lando could have sworn he heard the word “escape” pop up numerous times. “Because as the sibling of one, I certainly don’t.”
Lando looked back at the area where Oscar was standing, just to make sure that he was still there (although he wouldn’t do anything if Oscar was). Now he was talking to other classmates whom he didn’t recognize, people on the outskirts of his friend group, like he suspected Oscar was.
Lando wanted to see as much of Oscar as he could from a distance–both his legs and arms were crossed, and his eyebrows were lowered into whomever he was talking to. Did he hate the person or was he just a closed-off guy?
Lando was praying to the lord above. It was the first and not the latter.
“Oscar is a really chill person, really a relaxed person,” Alex began, giving him an actually comforting smile. “He was in my maths class last year, I should know.”
Lando didn’t have the heart to tell him.
“Enough about this,” Lando said, waving his hand. “Have you guys heard anything interesting going around?”
~<>~
Lando managed to find Oscar’s Snapchat through his username being tagged in Logan’s story from the past weekend. They were hanging out for an early birthday celebration between the two of them at his place, which was sweet, albeit disappointing that he would hang out without Lando and their gang. But whatever, Lando could arrange something for the week.
Any excitement hanging around Lando, however, quickly dissipated once he saw that Oscar had a snap score of one hundred-fifty, which was somehow both disappointing and impressive at the same time.
At least he used it at one point?
Or was he surviving on others tagging him in their stories.
Lando winced, pressing add underneath Oscar’s name. Even if he was added back, which being real Oscar wouldn’t even remember that he had the app, chances were he would chicken out of snapping him at all. He felt like an idiot, but a self-satisfied and proud idiot for clicking one button.
“Lando, why did you just add Oscar? Are you two friends?”
Logan was towering over Lando’s shoulder at their after-school meet-up place, letting his motorcycle rest against the side of his body. He didn’t have any malice in his voice, only genuine confusion, which came as a relief to Lando.
“Who is Oscar?” Lando blurted out, only worsening the confusion on Logan’s face. His jaw hung open slightly while his eyebrows furrowed in almost concern. “I just added this random guy for a dare–assignment?”
“He was talking to me last week about how you two worked together on that one physics project, so either you are playing dumb, or you are that dumb,” Logan replied, now tapping his feet against the pavement.
“You should know me by now, Logan. Now, what does he think about me?” Lando asked, smiling. He probably looked stupid, but there wasn’t anyone that he had to put up a mask for, for now. It was ten minutes before anyone should arrive, point blank, and knowing his buddies, they would be at least a few minutes late. “Did he say anything else?”
Logan raised an eyebrow. “So you are playing dumb. Why do you care what Oscar thinks?” Logan sounded too protective for comfort, pausing while looking down at his motorbike in thought. “Just how it helped, I don’t know man, he doesn’t really talk about you. But I’m sure nothing bad.”
Lando’s heart dropped. Even worse than Oscar not knowing him, he doesn’t care about him. He is just a side character in Oscar’s world, and not even a noteworthy one. He fought back a groan of disappointment, falling back into his own motorcycle, which rested against a nearby pillar.
“Really, nothing.” Lando breathed. It wasn’t even a question.
Logan’s expression now warped into that of disappointment, his mouth still slightly hanging open. “Lando, please don’t tell me that you are into my best friend, because that is going to make things really awkward for the three of us.” He was actually pleading.
Lando knew that he had held the silence too long, his body too tense, and that told Logan all he needed to know.
“But he reached out to me asking if I needed help so he must care about me in some aspect!” Lando protested.
“You are actually hopeless, my god. Look, just don’t do anything stupid with him, you are going to be dealing with a lot of people and teachers, including Mr. Brown, so save us both the trouble.”
“Who is it this time?” an older voice called, while more footsteps followed close behind.
“Oscar, he claims that he cares about him because he sent him an email asking if he needed help for a group project,” Logan replied.
Lewis wheezed while Nico slammed his hand onto his back to stop. “Him, really? He’s a brick wall!”
“Careful what you say, remember who you are talking to,” Logan warned, half-glaring at Lewis.
“Come on, Max, help me out here. I’m not completely delusional.”
Max shrugged, looking back at Carlos, who gave the same expression back. “Sure, sure, let’s get going already. We don’t have all the time in the world, mate.”
“Speak for yourself and Charles!”
“Get together with Oscar, and then we’ll talk to Lando.”