Chapter Text
Betas are a rarity.
That is a fact.
Compared to the almost 50 percent chance of presenting as either alpha or omega, The 0.081 percent that present as beta are found far and few between. The average person would encounter a beta maybe once or twice in their life, if at all.
But, unlike other rarities, just because betas were rare, did not mean they were valued or loved.
Oscar didn’t notice when he presented.
He’d felt pretty hot and sweaty on that day, but it was summer in Australia, and they were going through a heatwave. It didn’t seem like something out of the ordinary. Even over a decade later he’s still not sure if his sweaty disposition was actually related to his presentation or not.
He was sitting in class, working on the math sheets their teacher had given them, when she walked past him. Only to stop in her tracks, turn back around, and face him with a confused look on her face.
“Oscar?”
“Yes?”
She looked at him a second and took a couple of small sniffs before speaking again.
“Can you come out to the hall with me please?”
“Okay.”
Followed by the snickering sounds of his classmates, Oscar followed the teacher into the hall where she immediately took him to the nurse’s office. She called his parents to come but was very vague on the reason why. She just told them, ‘not to worry’ and to ‘come in to the school’ but refused to explain further. Said it was ‘easier to see for themselves.’
After she hung up the phone and they waited for his parents to arrive, Oscar quietly asked if he was in trouble. Luckily the teacher was very quick in reassuring him that he’d done nothing wrong. He let out a breath of relief and felt the tension in his body leave. If he’d been in trouble his parents might have taken away his karting privileges.
Once his parents arrived, the nurse and teacher quickly explained to them how he must have presented today, and that he turned out to be a beta.
His parent’s reactions were a strange one to him. They asked a million questions, refused to even believe it at first. It was only after taking in Oscar’s new scent that they became convinced. The nurse went on to explain how it was a possibility for everyone and that there was nothing they could’ve done to prevent this.
Listening to the adults around him, and seeing how they acted, made Oscar even more confused. He didn’t understand why this had to be such a big deal. As far as he was aware, nothing changed. He didn’t feel different or anything. He’d just presented. Had a scent now apparently. The way his parents reacted made it almost seem as if they’d just been told Oscar only had a few weeks left to live.
The nurse kept talking about what being a beta meant and what possible issues they had to watch out for, but at that point Oscar started to zone out. He was bored after having sat in the nurse’s office for over half an hour with nothing to do. Besides, he didn’t really care about all this designation business anyway.
After the adults were finally done talking, he was taken home for the rest of the day.
His mom made a nest. It was nice, but she started crying when he told her he couldn’t smell her or his dad’s scent.
That did spoil the experience a little bit.
Betas don’t feel emotions.
That is a very common misconception.
While it is true that betas are less likely to feel great amounts of emotions, they are not as unfeeling as the stereotype says. It is simply a lot more understated.
For example, in a situation where an alpha might jump, dance and cry with joy, a beta is more likely to simply smile and leave it at that.
They also have a tendency to miss social clues, meaning they can come off as rude to the regular person. This is not their fault. The majority of betas have a very underdeveloped sense of smell, meaning they cannot tell the differences in emotions from scent like everyone else. There are some betas who can smell the scent of alphas and omegas, but those are far and few between.
Most betas can smell nothing at all.
Oscar started wearing scent patches once his classmates started presenting as well.
Personally, he didn’t care about his designation, nor did he care to hide it, but other people seemingly did.
There were people doing a double take while scrunching their noses after walking past him. Or they would snicker and point with their friends if they saw him coming. Though not the end of the world, it was starting to become rather annoying. If it were only a few people, he could live with it, but they were at the age where every other day class had to be halted because someone had their presentation and needed to go to the nurse’s office. Meaning there was a steady growth in people who went from simply uninterested in him, to, in the worst cases, downright cruel to him.
Oscar knew that soon enough he would have the whole school laughing at and about him.
Thus, he started wearing the patches in a desperate attempt to seem normal to his peers. People still knew of course. It had only taken one person sniffing him out for the rumour mill to start, and once it starts, it is very difficult to make it stop.
But, he thought, maybe if they can’t smell the wrongness in my scent, they will finally leave me alone.
Sadly, this backfired.
Because most people were proud of their scent and didn’t want to hide it, the patches made him stand out even more.
He had already been alienated from his classmates. He had a different accent, was constantly missing class due to races, and let’s not forget, a beta, but wearing the patches seemed to be the cherry on top. Instead of just the newly-presented alphas and omegas staring, whispering and laughing at him, everyone started staring, whispering and laughing at him. Even the few other ‘weird’ kids who he’d been talking to on and off, seemed to now either ignore him, or pick on him over the patches.
Maybe they meant it as jokes, but it’d still hurt.
He was 16 years old, had no friends, no social life and the only place he truly felt like he belonged was inside a car going over 200 km/h on a racetrack.
He couldn’t wait to finally be done with school and become a fulltime racing driver.
The only good thing about being a social pariah was that he didn’t have to talk to people all that much. He could spend pretty much all his free time by himself, watching races or practising on a simulator and no one would bat an eye.
Small victories.
Betas are nature’s mistake
That’s just plain rude. But sadly, depending on how you look at it, somewhat true. There’s a better, nicer way of saying it, but fundamentally it’s correct. You see, the thing about betas, is that while from the outside they look the same as alphas and omegas, they are fundamentally different.
Betas are caused by a mutation on a cellular level. This mutation affects many things in the body. From sexual organs not functioning to their intended purpose, to an immune system that simply doesn’t work, to bad enough hormone fluctuations to require medicinal intervention. These are only a few examples. The list of medical and physical problems a beta can suffer from is notoriously long.
Most famously though, it affects a person’s sense of smell and scent glands.
The mutation stops the internal growth much sooner than it should while also telling the body it’s fully developed. Because the body is told that everything is ‘done’, betas present a lot earlier than normal children. Usually at around 10 to 12 years old. This also means that while betas do have a scent, it is a lot less pronounced and much more subtle. Furthermore, as we all know, every person has an underlying tone in their personal scent that tells people whether they are an alpha or omega. Betas don’t have that. They do not have a distinct beta scent that mingles and matches with their personal scent.
There is simply nothing there.
A fact that many people find quite disturbing.
After school, it was almost strange being surrounded people who all had to wear scent patches. Previously in his experience, people would made fun of you for not letting out your scent, whereas now almost the entire garage would throw you a new patch if your scent started leaking through just slightly.
It was nice not being the odd one out for once, and to be treated like a normal person.
Well… mostly.
His age was something of an issue for some it seems. Or maybe not an issue but more… something that drew their attention.
Fernando especially, treated him like a pup.
His pup to be exact.
In between interviews, briefings and simulator work, Fernando would often find the time to seek out Oscar. He’d ask him how he’s doing, bring snacks and just generally check up on him. That all is of course perfectly normal between coworkers and friends, the thing that made it different was the constant marking. Every time they’d meet, Fernando would touch and ruffle his hair, neck or shoulders, leaving his scent for everyone to smell.
He probably did it to get brownie points with Mark.
Honestly, Oscar didn’t mind it that much. The older omega was nice and gave him lots of useful advice related to racing. It could just be a bit annoying when Logan and the other drivers would tease him over it.
From time to time, Fernando would even try to ‘impart parental wisdom’ on him.
Again, brownie points, Mark, etc.
One example of this was when they were sitting in Fernando’s driver’s room after free practice 2 in Barcelona. They started out very serious. Both were looking at a tablet filled with data from both the simulator sessions and practices and commenting to each other about what went well where, and what could still be improved and how. But over time that seriousness made way for something more casual.
“Ah,” Fernando grunted at some point, “it has run out,” and continued to peel the scent patches off his neck and wrists, before throwing them in the trash.
“Oh, here I have some.”
Fernando accepted the patches, though he waited to put them on. “Thank you, Oscar,” he said instead, and then ruffled his hair, probably putting on some fresh scent while he had the chance. After this, he looked at Oscar, and for a moment, deeply inhaled. After he exhaled, he spoke.
“You know, there’s no shame in not having presented yet.”
Oscar, who’d been back to looking at his tablet, blinked in surprise over the sudden change of topic.
“Sorry, what?”
Fernando kept talking. “I, myself, was a late bloomer. I presented only shortly after joining the F1 grid.”
“I’ve presented.” Oscar said with only a slight childish whine in his voice.
“Oh?” Fernando quirked his eyebrows in question.
“I’m a beta.”
Fernando laughed, “alright Oscar,” and ruffled his hair again while Oscar tried to shove his hand away, “just remember, no shame.”
Oscar rolled his eyes but nodded and let a small smile come to his face. Not everyone had always been kind about his designation, so it was nice that Fernando seemingly didn’t care and continued to treat him just the same.
Even if it was just to stay in Mark’s good book.
Oscar was happy.
After a year of playing reserve driver for Alpine and the whole contract debacle, Oscar was finally, finally, going to be a part of the official F1 grid.
He would be driving for McLaren with Lando Norris as his teammate.
As soon as everything with the contract had smoothed over, he called his family in Australia to proudly tell them: ‘I’m a Formula One driver.’
‘Yes, really.’
‘No, I’m not lying.’
‘What? What has Mark been saying to you and not me?!’
After some disbelief on their end, which luckily disappeared quickly enough, there was a loud chorus of excitement thrown his way over the phone from everyone. His mom was crying, his sisters were yelling, and his dad just calmly told him how proud he was.
After the initial chaos, they continued to talk for what must have been hours. Where he would normally become tired and somewhat annoyed having to listen to his alpha and omega family members being loud and excessive, this time he was merely filled with a warm feeling. The feeling of pride and love from his family settled firmly inside his chest. Filling him with confidence over what was to come.
When he hung up the phone and found himself surrounded by the silence of his empty apartment, the warmth in his chest stayed and Oscar quietly smiled to himself.
He was a Formula 1 driver.
Finally.
Betas don’t belong in motorsport.
That is an opinion.
And a stupid one at that.