Chapter Text
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It was the first day of school. The sun shone above, the grass was green, and the sky was a perfect shade of light blue, yadda yadda yadda.
That is what you expect will happen generally on the first day of school, but then again, this is not what you generally read.
It was Lando’s first day at Millfield High School, a prestigious school with absolutely bratty kids. Typical.
Now, rounding back to the sunshine and rainbows part, it just wasn’t possible because everything in Lando’s life was bound to go wrong, and you best believe it.
Firstly, Lando woke up late because his alarm broke , God knows how , and then he forgot to eat breakfast and cycled to his new school with a growling stomach and torn shoes. Ohh, how he had begged his mom for new shoes, but they just couldn’t afford it now with his tuition fee as well as his brother Ollie’s expenses.
In the quiet time of stolen peace he had after locking his brother in the bathroom, his mom was trying to fix his shoes by sticking the soles together with fabric glue.
“Just don’t drag them too much, okay?” she said with that look in her eyes.
Ohh, how Lando hated that look. It just seemed as if she believed this was it, this was how they would live for the rest of their lives.
And Lando had made it the purpose of his life to prove her wrong.
Lando’s family had been borderline poverty since as long as he could remember.
They never had good furniture or fancy food. Their sofa creaked whenever someone sat down, and their fan stopped working multiple times in the middle of the night.
But one thing that he admired about his family was that they always showed up no matter the circumstances. He would not be let down by his family, and that’s how they stuck together.
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“Holy shit,” Lando muttered under his breath as he entered his school building for the first time.
It had huge glass windows and ceilings adorned with chandeliers that probably cost more than his house.
There were sports cars crowding at the front gate as the smell of petrol hung in the air. Students began arriving at school in perfectly tailored uniforms with high-end jewellery and accessories peeking out.
This was a school where power obviously mattered more than grades, and everyone here obviously knew who were the ones controlling it.
The F4.
They were four boys who came from such wealth that it cannot be acknowledged. So much money that a normal man can’t comprehend it, let alone think about it.
There was Oscar Piastri, the heir to the largest estate and development company, Papaya Apex, in Australia.
His mom, Nicole Piastri, was the current CEO, and her demeanour alone oozed of power and respect, and it was expected of Oscar to follow in her footsteps.
Then there was Carlos Sainz. He was most probably the quietest one, burying himself in all things art and also with the heavy responsibility of being the heir to all the largest healthcare centers in Australia.
Then there was Max Verstappen, whose family dealt with all the export and import of expensive Dutch goods.
Lastly, there was George Russell, whose family controlled the expensive nightlife clubs expanding across the country.
But Lando didn’t really care about them. He knew this because Ollie wouldn’t stop talking his ear off when he got to know that Lando was going to their school.
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As Lando continued towards his class, he heard people talking about what yachts they would be taking out this weekend or what new bag their parents bought them.
“Bro, my dad bought me the new iPhone 17 as a reward for completing my assignment,” a boy uttered with excitement.
Lando could only wish for a touchscreen phone.
.
It didn’t feel right because he never cared about materialistic stuff, but then again, all he had to do was study and quite literally run home for the peace and quiet.
(There he jinxed himself.)
“Okay, Lando, all you have to do is squeeze every last drop out of your scholarship and get outta here so you can be rich and snobbish,” Lando said to himself.
He reached his classroom and was hit by the smell of expensive perfumes and colognes.
It was at the very end of the corridor,
where he barely missed a fight between two brats. What were they fighting about?
Well, a boy scratched another’s car , some fancy model, and he, in turn, threw his backpack in the trash.
Lando could only pray to have such “problems.”
Thank the lords he was not late for the first llesson though.
He then went ahead and sat down on a bench near the window.
As he was unpacking his bag, he felt someone sit beside him.
He turned to look, and he saw an unusually American face sitting beside him.
Like painfully American.
He could nearly see the eagle flying.
“Hi! Oh my God, are you new???” the man asked with excitement.
“Uhh, oh, hi. Good morning to you too, and yes, I am new here. I am Lando, and who… might you be?” Lando was a little taken aback by this man.
How, just how, was he so energetic at 8 in the morning?
“Right, sorry. I should have introduced myself. I’m Logan,” he said, a bit embarrassed.
For a moment, Logan just stared.
“What?” Lando asked, getting uncomfortable.
“Why are you here alone, looking all terrified?” Logan finally asked with a confused look.
“Well, you see, I’m here just to study on a scholarship, like actually study, and I just can’t bring myself to connect with the these people. You seem popular though. Go on, talk to others. I’m pretty boring as a person, to be honest,”
Lando blurted out while awkwardly gathering his books.
Logan looked at him with an unreadable expression, spinning his pen between his fingers.
“I want to be your friend though,” Logan said, ignoring Lando’s obvious attempt at pushing him away.
Before Lando could respond, his stomach growled with hunger.
He immediately looked away, ears turning red in embarrassment.
But then Logan handed him a chocolate bar , a Kinder Maxi, to be specific.
Lando’s favourite.
“Are you sure?” Lando asked hesitantly.
“Just take it.” Logan grabbed his wrist and forced the chocolate into his hands.
Lando took the chocolate and just stared at the wrapper for a second.
Memories about the boy in sixth grade flashed through his mind, but he quickly pushed them away before breaking the chocolate in half and giving some to the American.
How does he know?
His wallpaper was ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN’.
Maybe, , making friends wasn’t that hard all along.
“So, how are you finding this school, Lando?” Logan asked.
“It’s fine, I guess. Could be better if everyone wasn’t talking ‘rich’ all the time.”
Logan’s eyes widened before he looked around the classroom and asked,
“Please tell me you didn’t get into any trouble??”
“Why do you say that?” Lando asked, curious.
“Don’t you know about the F4?” Logan said while looking around to make sure nobody was listening.
“Well yeah, obviously all the girls in Australia simp for them. What else is there to know?” Lando said dismissively.
“Oh my God, you are so naive. Don’t you know about the red card?”
As soon as he said that, the atmosphere seemed to turn cold, much, much colder than before. People stopped talking and shifted around uncomfortably.
Logan whispered in a voice so low that if it was any lower, Lando wouldn’t have heard him.
“The hell’s that?” Lando muttered.
“These four boys rule this school. Sure, girls simp over them, but they have a much darker side. They are absolute sadists.”
“If anyone in this school, no matter their background, does something that goes against their command, they will receive something known as the red card.”
“Which gives everyone in this school access to literally physically and mentally torture that person to no end and the teachers cant do shit, That’s why everyone stays clear of them,” Logan finished his rant and looked around suspiciously.
“Holy hell, that shit is crazy. Does that actually happen?” Lando asked with wide eyes.
“Boy, I’ve seen it with my own two eyes, so just be safe.”
Lando was feeling uneasy, but then he scoffed and a smirk appeared on his face.
“You know what, Logan? All we gotta do is come here, study, eat, gossip a little, and be on our merry little way. I don’t think we even have to talk to or even look at those four, so what do you say? Actual friends?”
Lando asked as he put forward his hand.
“Bro, I asked you first, so it’s but obvious I wanna be friends.”
With that, Logan pulled him into a hug, with a smirk on his face that Lando couldn’t see.
Here, Lando jinxed himself into his own downfall yet again.