Friday. 10:35 Mobile International Airport
“Morning assholes!” John yelled from the Mercedes SUV.
“Nice wheels!” Nathan smiled as he walked to the rear and threw his bag into it.
“So glad that we pushed up all our flights,” Jessica was happy to be there.
“I’m surprised we all landed within twenty minutes of one another,” Kristin said as she got in the back of the SUV.
Andern was putting his and Kristin’s gear in the back, “Better to be lucky than good.”
“That’s an awful saying,” John said, almost disgusted at hearing that, “Anyways, wait till you see her folk’s place. The others lost their shit.”
“What’s that mean? We already know she’s rich,” Andern said.
John just gave off an evil sounding chuckle. That disturbed the others for a moment but then John put the SUV in drive and began driving away from the airport. The others noticed John was ignoring the speed limit. He wasn’t driving recklessly but was driving noticeably faster than everyone around him.
“Jesus man, what are you, twenty over?” Nathan said as he nervously laughed.
“Nah, fifteen,” John smiled as he settled into the leftmost lane, “Got about twenty miles to go until we get to the estate.”
“So, how excited is she?” Kristin asked.
“It’s been a slow build over the last few weeks. Truth be told I’m excited too,” John smiled and slowed the vehicle down to just twelve miles per hour over the limit.
“So, what kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into?” Jessica asked from the back.
“I got the greenlight to buy a watch. That’s literally it,” John shrugged.
“No one tried to kill you?” Nathan asked quasi-seriously.
“Not since the last attempt.”
“I’m sorry, but that is just a terrifying thing to say. No one should be used to attempts on their life,” Jessica looked mortified.
The cabin of the SUV started to laugh. Jessica didn’t appreciate John’s aggressive driving. Nathan and Andern were giggling like idiots. Kristin wasn’t quite as upset as Jessica but as they continued the drive, she was getting closer to Jessica’s stance. Thirty minutes later John pulled the crew into the Robertson’s estate.
Alice supposedly told Jessica and Kristin about the estate but based on her reaction John presumed she hadn’t been as clear as she could have been. All four of their mouths were agape, stunned at the size and affluence they could see. Andern asked a simple question about all the mansions here. That they were all owned by the same family just stunned them. Jessica and Kristin couldn’t from any words, they were stunned that their friend grew up here. Andern thought it was so cool and Nathan was asking about what was available to do there. John pulled up in front of a large building.
“Welcome to your home away from home for a while,” John turned the vehicle off and got out.
“What the absolute fuck?” Jessica finally said something.
“This is where y’all be staying. It’s the apartment for the workers that are employed by the family,” John opened up the rear hatch of the SUV, “The girls will all move over to Alice’s mansion the night before the wedding for wedding stuff.”
“I have a lot of questions,” Kristin said.
John laughed, “I’m sure you do. Anyways, pick an open room on the third floor and your good to go.”
“Come back down when your good and I’ll bring you over to the main mansion, yes I said that, to have lunch with everyone.”
Kristin was pulled into the building by Andern. Jessica slowly walked in trying to assess what she was seeing. Nathan was laughing at the ridiculousness of everything. John smirked at their reaction and just leaned against the SUV.
12:00 Main Mansion, Dining Room
“Ok, so I’m sure y’all have a lot of questions,” Alice said.
“I don’t,” John said sarcastically.
Alexa shook her head, “John, you don’t count.”
“What the fuck is all of this? You said you were rich, but John is rich, this…” Jessica couldn’t finish her thought.
“Actually, John could probably find a way to afford this and more,” Alice said.
“Not all of this, well not legally anyways. This mansion or your place and a modest ground I could swing.” John coughed on his drink.
“So, aside from smartass over there, my family is obviously really wealthy, and this is all there’s. I did get a mansion on my sixteenth birthday.”
The boys, John included, started to laugh. Everything about the estate was ridiculous and over the top. The girls, except Alexa, were just shocked at everything.
“Alice, for my quinceañera I got a five-year-old car, a dress, and money for a trip with my cousins to Miami.”
“Yeah, for my sixteenth I got my driver’s license,” Kristin shook her head.
“Guys, the money isn’t hers, it’s her families. But obviously the circumstances between all of us are radically different,” John said.
“I’m not upset with that at all, it’s just so wild,” Jessica took a sip of her coffee.
“So anyways, today’s a hangout and do-nothing kind of day…” John was interrupted by the maids, “Ooh food.”
Lunch was served. The group switched gears and talked about what they had been doing during their break. Everyone was loving the break and just enjoying a slow-paced summer. PE was a general complaint about all the tracking that was necessary. No one had anything bad to say. After lunch, they went back to their rooms to get swimsuits and headed to the pool.
13:00 Poolside
“Tomorrow morning at 09:00 we’re leaving here to go to the McLaren Racing building,” John said as he sat down on a ledge in the pool.
“So, your racing cars now. What can’t you do?” Brian rolled his eyes.
“Not much buddy. Not much. Alexa’s uncle is the CEO of the racing team’s operations. My chance at actually racing a car is dependent on my simulator work tomorrow.”
“Have you ever actually driven a race car or a simulator?” Kevin asked.
“No to the car, yes to the simulator. I’m just hoping I don’t embarrass myself tomorrow,” John smiled.
Andern was resting on an inflatable pool floaty, “I could get used to living here.”
Alice started to laugh, “Andern, you are my dear friend. But you are not living here.”
Everyone started to roast Andern. He got defensive which caused it to escalate. Eventually, Nathan said something really stupid, so things shifted away from Andern. The mood was light, and the pool was making it comfortable to be outside.
“John, has the swamp ass been as bad as feared?” Kevin asked.
“Not as bad as I had feared, but close.”
“You big fat liar. It has not been that bad,” Alice shouted from the lounger area.
“Yes, it has,” John said quietly enough for the boys to hear.
“So has nothing happened? Because that doesn’t happen around you?” Thomas asked.
“Not a thing has happened. Enjoying this change of pace,” John smiled, “Not having people try to kill, capture or maim me is pretty sweet.”
“Welcome to real life bud,” Nathan laughed.
The day would fly by. It was good to have the old gang back together. Dinner was a three-course meal. Everyone was gradually accepting where they were and why they were there. After dinner, they hung out by the patio and enjoyed a warm spring morning.
Saturday. 09:45 McLaren USA Racing
“I don’t care how he does here, but he is not driving us home after he’s been in a simulator,” Jessica said as they walked into the building.
“I’m not really against John usually, but this time I’m with Jessica,” Nathan said.
“There ya go. Problem solved,” John tossed the keys to Alexa, “Holy hell I’m excited.”
The group entered the building and follow Alexa to navigate through the building. There were pictures, trophies, and car parts all over the wall. Several different cars were also stored there. The boys all ran over to a Formula 1 car that was about a hundred years old.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Told you, you’d never fit in there,” Nathan said.
“Duh, I always knew I wouldn’t fit in one of these.”
“Good morning, which one of you young men is John?” Zeke Harris, Alexa’s uncle from her mother’s side of the family, walked over to the group.
“That’d be me, sir, thank you for entertaining this crazy idea,” John walked over and shook Zeke’s hand.
“Yeah, no way you’d fit in an open-wheel car,” Zeke laughed, as did the rest of the boys, “Follow me, I’ll give you guys a look at race central and our simulators.”
“This is so fucking cool,” Andern said.
The rest of the boys just nodded. Each hallway had new things to look at and all big rooms had a historic car preserved and stored within. The girls didn’t understand why the guys were acting the way they did. Kristin asked for an explanation, but it really came down to it being really cool and the car is awesome.
“Honey, is it really that simple?” Alice asked.
“Yes, car go fast, very sweet,” John was absolutely captivated by everything here.
“Alright gentleman. Here’s where we manage all our races,” Zeke smiled.
The room had over one hundred terminals, numerous screens, and a central area that he or some other team executive could manage as the race was going on. The boys immediately ran around the room looking and touching everything.
“They look like children,” Jessica said.
“A couple of them are quite adorable though,” Alice said, “Well, only one’s especially adorable to me.”
“Look at Kevin, oh my god that is so cute,” Theresa squealed.
Kristin said nothing but just started to laugh.
“They are the hunters and our protectors. Wow,” Jessica laughed.
“To be fair, this is a pretty normal response,” Zeke said smiling.
“Alice, I know what to do with this video,” Alexa smiled.
“I know exactly what we’re going to do with it too,” Alice sent an impish smile back to Alexa
“Gentlemen, come with me to the sims. The big one we’ll get John situated, but we have several other sims for you guys to play one and kill time.”
“FUCK YEAH!” Andern shouted, “DIBS!”
Alexa focused on Andern’s overly animated response and resulting stumble as he tried to run through the room.
“Games Alice. All we need is games and we can dominate all of them,” Theresa smirked.
Alice laughed as they followed Zeke and the boys into the simulation area of the building. It was on the entire opposite side of the building. There were six different sim machines in the opening of the room along with two larger simulators with some motion. The big simulator was in a separate to their room to their left.
“Holy shit, their main sim is massive,” Nathan said.
“Ok gents. One of my assistants will help you with the two motion machines back there. These six use the latest version of iRacing. So just choose your car, track and have at it.”
“Theresa honey, can you grab us when the big ape starts to go ham in the sim?”
Theresa laughed, “I will, enjoy yourself, love.”
Jessica leaned into the rest of the girls, “Not going to lie, this gift is one hundred percent worth it to see all of them like this.”
“Alexa, I owe you big time for seeing John act like this. Bloody amazing,” Alice was so happy to see this entirely different side of her fiancé.
The girls followed Zeke into the control room. There was an incredible amount of tech in the room for something as trivial, in their minds, as racing. The girls took a seat at the back so that they could see a third-person view of John’s car. Zeke and a pair of assistants sat in an elevated area to their right and were putting on headphones and mics.
“Can you copy me, John?”
“Loud and clear.”
“Excellent, we’ve got you loaded up in a Porsche 911 GT3. I want to ease you into racing the prototype.”
“Copy that.”
“Once the system finishes loading feel free to start the car up and head down pit lane. Remember to hit the red button on the wheel to engage your pit limiter. When drive past the white line hit it again, then it’s time to send it.”
The sim finished loading. John started the car and put it into gear. He pressed the red button and brought the car up to its pit lane speed for the track. When John’s car passed the pit exit, he pressed the red button again and he floored it, shifting down in the gears as the speed and revs got to their ideal amounts. John spent about forty-five minutes running lap after lap in the car.
“He’s damn consistent,” one of the assistants said.
“Five tenths off the record here with that class car.” The other one said.
“Get ready to reset the car and give it fresh tires, spawn him back far enough to get the tires warm,” Zeke smiled, “John, we’re resetting the car, get the tires to temp, then full send.”
“Roger.”
John’s car moved back on the track. He slowed down and swerved back and forth to build up heat in the tires. With four turns left he began driving the car down the race lines at race speed. He was in full send mode. John nailed the apex for the first two turns but missed it slightly on the next few turns. John hit the apex on the back straight which helped his car speed up near the record time around the circuit. He didn’t nail the last turn, but it was close. The 911 crossed the line, John improved his time by nearly three-tenths of a second.
“Holy hell, to think they actually added g-forces to these damn rigs. Good night,” John said.
“Hell of a lap, you beat your personal best there by three tenths.”
“Damn, that was all I had on it.”
“No shame in that, especially for your unfamiliarity with the car,” Zeke was impressed with the young man, “Take a drink of water, we’re going to get the car set up for you. We’re going to have you run some laps at the Circuit of the Americas as we have lots of data there for comparison’s sake. Don’t have that at Barber where you could actually drive it.”
“Theresa, I think it’s time to round up the children,” Jessica said.
“Yup, I’ll go get them.”
Theresa got out of her chair and walked into the other room. She hollered something at them, but immediately after that happened sounds of feet running towards the main simulation room could be heard. Theresa got passed by all of the boys running into the room. When she did show up again, she was laughing at the absurdity she witnessed.
“You guys don’t know how bad the rest of them are at race cars,” Theresa continued to laugh, “Those four over there were arguing about who hit who in a turn.”
The girls laughed. The boys took different seats around the room they were in. Based on the screen it looked like they were almost ready to let John out on the simulated track.
“Thanks for the patience, John. The car is all loaded. Word of warning, the g-forces you feel in this car are way different than the Porsche. You are cleared to send it.”
“Roger that. Cleared to send it.”
John shifted the car into gear and sped down the pit lane. When he crossed the exit, he accelerated up the hill to the hairpin turn. Coming off the pitlane makes it impossible to hit the apex here, but John did well to keep his car situation through the turn. He sped through the technical portion of the course through the next several turns. The car roared down the back stretch before he slowed down for another hairpin turn.
It was clear that John was laboring against the g forces. There was plenty of grunting and swearing going on in the car. As John turned the car in on the front stretch, he was in full send mode to record a hot lap. He didn’t hit the perfect apex on another of the turns, but it was an excellent show for a rookie.
“Good god, that was a hell of a lap,” the younger assistant said.
“How far off the record was he?” Zeke asked as he watched John doing another hot lap.
“Three tenths off the overall low time during qualifying at the Petit LeMans last year. Sixty-two hundredths off ours.”
“Uncle Z, does that mean?” Alexa asked.
Zeke swiveled in his chair to look at the girls and smiled, “Looks like we’re going to Barber on Tuesday. That’s assuming he handles the circuit well.”
John continued to do laps around COTA for thirty more minutes. Zeke called in and told him to take a break and rest. They were loading up Barber for him to try. When the sim loaded John started to put laps around Barber. This went on for another forty minutes. The McLaren employees were impressed by John’s innate talent.
When John got out of the sim it looked like he went through a hell of a workout. He was breathing heavily, wobbly in the legs, and just bent over and rest on his knees and breathed.
“Holy hell, that is a workout,” John was still hyper despite the endurance beating he had just taken.
“Well, we’ve confirmed you’re not a pro racer,” Brian said.
“Yet. You missed a keyword,” Nathan said.
“You look tired,” Andern stated the obvious.
“You have no idea, the g-forces inside one of them are crazy,” John stretched some before walking over to the group.
“When all is said and done, that was seriously impressive,” Zeke was smiling, “Not many people can do what you did. So, here’s the deal. We’re going to get two seats made for you. One for our 911 GT3 and another for the Prototype. Next week we’re going to have you drive both cars starting with the GT3. If you can handle that and are comfortable then we can switch you over to the other car.
“Hell yeah,” John was extremely excited.
Three Days Later. 07:30 Mobile Private Airport
Everyone was on the tarmac around the Gulfstream G1700. There were several employees of McLaren racing, Alexa, and John and his friends. John was at the back of the plan and had a smug look on his face.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen that cocky look, what’s smug John up to?” Alice asked.
“I’m putting my bag in last. Guaranteed to get my stuff first,” John said, “I’m a genius.”
Alice and the others that heard that rolled their eyes. But they could see how excited John was. For once he was positive his bag would be off the plane first. And true to form, John let the McLaren employees finish loading the plane, then he put his bag in their last and watched the pilot secure the cargo door.
Twenty minutes later they were in the air. The jet had just enough seats for everyone, but they were so much more comfortable than flying commercial. Everyone said the same thing, that they could get used to flying like this.
The flight itself was almost a straight shot from Mobile to Montgomery. The plane had barely banked more than a couple of degrees during the flight. They landed and taxied to their parking spot. The engines shut down and then everyone left the plane. John was bouncing with excitement as he got to the back of the plane.
Unfortunately, that excitement would disappear as his bag wasn’t the first, second, or third one pulled off. In a marked improvement over the norm, his bag was pulled off about halfway through. But John couldn’t understand how the luggage had shifted that much in such a calm flight. He was still crushed but he put those thoughts aside. He was going to be in a fucking race car soon.
10:00 Montgomery, Barber Motorsports Park
John was getting acclimated to his new settings. The McLaren Racing team was giving him tips and instructions on what to do. Once they were done John got out of the car and headed into a dressing room to change into a racing suit.
Alice ran over and hugged him, “Have fun and be safe.”
John picked her up with his right arm and kissed her, “I will. Thanks!”
John walked back to the Porsche 911 GT3. He was getting strapped into the car. Alice was right next to the car holding his helmet. She overheard Zeke’s last orders about how John should handle the car. The last thing Zeke said was to have fun. Alice leaned in and kissed him again. She gave him the helmet.
Two minutes later the car sped down the pit lane. There were several drones in the air giving the group of friends several different views of the track and seeing how John was progressing through the lap. John continued to do laps in the GT3 for thirty minutes. He came in for a change of tires and more fuel.
The group could hear over the radio how excited John was. Everyone at the track was having a good time too. There was a food truck that came in that made some absolutely killer tacos. Andern was laying down on the viewing deck watching John zip down the front straight. Moving was too hard and dangerous for Andern in his current taco coma state.
“Alright John, box this lap. Time to upgrade your ride.”
“Copy that, boxing this lap,” John was smiling from ear to ear.
John brought the car down the pit lane. Just before the garage, they were using he slowed down and turned into it. He brought the car to a complete stop and shut it off. John hopped out of the car and bounced around with excitement.
“Ok, big guy, you’ve got enough gas for a warmup lap, then six more laps that you can send it. Be smart, just like that 911, you need to hit the turns correctly. Use your warmup lap and one more lap to get acclimated to the car’s speed.”
“Roger,” John said as he stepped into the car.
The crew got him belted into the seat. They brought the tires over to the car and bolted them on. They wheeled the car out to the pit lane where they put in the fuel. They took the car off the dollies and then John was given the green light to start up the car.
The prototype’s engine screamed like a demon woke up after a hellacious bender and was angry at existence itself. John would later tell his friends that the sound of the engine alone caused him to go to half-mast. The car began going down to the pit lane, when he crossed the pit exit line the engine screamed as it sped away down the track.
John was able to get seven laps with the car. He wouldn’t set any lap records in it, but his performance would have gotten him noticed by other race teams. When his short time in the car came to an end, he brought it down the pitlane and parked it in front of the garage. His friends came out and a group photo was taken of the friends. Alice and John were in the center of the picture with the biggest smiles looking at one another. All their friends were equally happy and excited about it. That picture was something that John committed to memory, pixel by pixel, and would treasure it to the day he dies.