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romanscool · 25 days ago

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seventeen doesn't feel that old

-> F1 RPF - Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen - F/F (rule63ed my favs) - Rated G - Completed (50k words) - banner art by @jermeows

Daniel and Michelle had bunk beds when they were kids. Daniel used to kick the mattress to piss off Michelle right before she went to sleep. It was always hard, Michelle’s body weighing it down, Daniel having to fit her foot between the wooden planks. Now, when Daniel kicks, she sees white light coming through, the ceiling lit up by the moon outside. Daniel doesn’t mean to wonder if Max would fit in the top bunk. But she still wishes she had the guts to ask.

(see below for a snippet of it)

It starts in the band room, which, ironically, is one of the quietest places in the whole damn school until the bell rings.

It’s that smudgy time of September again. Daniel usually likes it, the warming breeze, the breaths, the general excitement of picking up something new you left to pick up dust for a couple months, as in, school, mocking the new teachers that always seem either cocky or un-belonging.

But not this year. Not this September. Because Daniel knows it’s her last one in this shitty highschool, and knows she’ll miss it, in a way. That always puke-y smell hanging in the air, the ‘welcome back, class of 2007!’ banner that starts to fall off the building wall on day 2 and how the people always whisper when you pass them in the corridors. Ghosts, Daniel used to call them. Just psh-psh-pshing all day long.

This is what pushed her to make the terrible, terrible decision of joining band. Because for one, Daniel has never cared much about music, except maybe for the CDs her dad sometimes lets her play in the truck when they take her for a turn in the city, and for two, she doesn’t actually know how to play anything.

She’d seen nerdy guys with glasses and nice enough girls hanging in the room after classes were done, and she’d always wondered how okay she’d do at music. Daniel’s pretty shit in school, the only thing keeping her afloat being PE, but she’s also not that good at sports.

Sure, she gets picked pretty quickly, but that’s because the other people in her class are weirdos. And anyway, boys are always made team captains for some reason, which means she’s got double the chance to be picked, considering all her friends are guys. As in, her two friends are guys.

The band room looks smelly, but it isn’t really. Like mold. Humid and dusty, but not puke-y. Which is a relief. Daniel doesn’t know what she’d have done if she would have had to sit for an hour in a puke-y room. She’s got enough of the smell during maths class.

There’s a chill hanging in the air, the lukewarm cold of winter in Australia having not quite left yet. An especially windy breeze knocks a couple leaves off of the biggest tree in the courtyard, makes them slip through an open window. Daniel watches them dance and float, molds the really bad flute a guy is playing in the front of the room to form two distinct voices Daniel can give to the leaves.

It’s pretty boring. And Daniel does not belong here. That, she knows.

“Are you not going to play?” Someone on Daniel’s left says. Daniel sat down next to a quiet looking girl in hopes of not making conversation. Unfortunately, the quiet looking girl speaks. Daniel thinks she’s seen her somewhere before but she can’t really place her. “Daniel, why are you making weird eyes at me.”

And oh yeah. Daniel remembers her. The new kid. Except she isn’t new. Daniel’s just never really seen her before, except maybe during lunch or something.

Nobody seems to notice her. They all just learned her name and decided not to make friends with the girl, which Daniel thinks is kind of cruel, but it’s not like she did the opposite. It’s not like she did any different, only sitting down at lunch tables with Scotty and Blake. Only talking to them during breaks.

The kid’s Dutch, talking all lispy and tongue every time a sound comes out of her mouth, and Daniel wonders if she's even sure she knew what she sounded like before she’s just talked to her.

She’s also probably younger than Daniel, because Daniel heard she skipped a class back in elementary school, which isn’t something people usually brag about, at least not when you’re a teenager, but that girl doesn’t seem to follow any rule. Body standing tall and proud instead of making herself smaller like any other seventeen or sixteen year old girls who try to make the guys seem taller than they are.

Maybe she doesn’t care for guys. Maybe she’s a lesbian. Daniel guesses she does have that masculine kind of energy.

Wait. What’s her name?

The girl looks at Daniel weird. Maybe because Daniel hasn’t answered her for longer than she’s supposed to. Her bottom lip is jutting out. Pouting. Her face is kind of red for a reason Daniel doesn’t know. “What are you-”

“Max, can you help out Sebastian?” The teacher’s voice cuts the kid, well Max, Daniel guesses, from echoing herself.

Max closes her mouth. Nods. “I will help out Sebastian, Daniel.”

“Okay, Max.” Daniel kind of chuckles to herself, because it’s weird that Max keeps repeating Daniel’s name.

She’s not even saying it properly. Vowels sort of jumpy, syllables distinct from one another. ‘Dan-yul.’ Daniel’s never heard it said that way before. It’s kind of sweet. Kinda.

Daniel is maybe also a bit biased. Because she’s never talked to a foreigner before, let alone been to another country other than sweet home Australia, so she thinks it’s kind of cool that Max literally comes from the other side of the planet. So maybe this is all it is. Cute accent syndrome or something. Maybe a bit of jealousy, too. Daniel’s parents never had the money to really do anything except buy some new stuff for the farm that’s supposed to bring in more money. It doesn’t, usually.

Daniel realizes Max is some kind of musical genius when her fingers touch the piano. It looks almost effortless. It would’ve been a little more convincing if her face wasn’t contorted in this little frown that deepens her pout. Makes it pop out. Pink. Like she’s put on lipgloss or something. Daniel isn’t gay, not that there’s anything wrong with being gay, she just doesn’t like girls that way, but she thinks she’s allowed to enjoy another girl’s beauty, or something.

Max talks but she’s too far away for Daniel to understand anything. She places her hand and speaks as she changes placement, probably spells out the keys, notes, because Daniel thinks she can decipher a D or C in the mouthed words. Seb nods along. He’s pretty, like always. Daniel won’t admit it but maybe she’s joined band practice especially for him.

But the thing is, he’s already rejected her a couple times. And even though it was last year, junior year, and Daniel was stupid and young, Seb still doesn’t seem to reciprocate anything. Daniel’s kind of let go of her expectation to be anything more than friends with him, now. But. She’s still allowed to enjoy his beauty, yeah ?

Daniel is getting a bit bored. She hasn’t moved her ass for ten minutes, just patiently waiting for someone to talk to her, tell her what to do because she has no idea. She figured she should pick up an instrument when Max asked her if she was going to play, but she doesn’t know where the teacher keeps them. If there is even some left. Because it’s more crowded than Daniel thought it would be. Apparently, a lot of young Australian kids enjoy band music.

She looks to her right. And maybe she could play that, whatever that’s called. It’s big, sort of violin shaped but about as tall as Daniel if she was standing. And look, Daniel is humble, but she won’t lie and say she’s short. In fact, she’s pretty tall. So yeah, that violin-thing is big.

Daniel thinks for a second. It’s big. So, like, it’s not fragile or anything, right? Can’t be, with this size. She thinks she’s allowed to just, try it, then.

Daniel strikes a cord. It’s loud, too.

She sees Max’s fingers stop. The piano sounds stop with them. It’s silent, suddenly. The very bad flute the brown haired guy from the beginning was playing doesn’t make any sound now, either. Daniel starts to panic a little. She wants to leave. Why did she sign up for band? She forgot.

But then. A chuckle.

Daniel looks up. She meets Max’s gaze. Her hands are off of the piano now, one in her lap and the other in front of her mouth. Their eyes meet for a second too long.

“Daniel Ricciardo,” The music teacher starts, having stopped talking with one of the girls with the guitar to look at him.

Daniel’s suddenly nervous. She nods. Swallows. She’s not known to be the best student in school. Teachers don’t usually like her, and apparently this guy won’t either. Daniel doesn’t even know his name, hasn’t taken the time to read it from his teachers’ sheet at the beginning of the year. “Yes?”

She hears Mr Whatnot turn on his heels more than sees him, because Daniel’s eyes are on the ground. Also, the sound is fucking shriek, has her almost shiver. Daniel’s pretty sure she’s fucked up.

“Please, do not touch another student’s instrument.”

Daniel swallows. Nods. The saliva gets stuck in her throat and she has to cough it out before answering, too quick, too sharp, “Yeah, sorry.” She thinks she sees Max giggle again in the corner of her eye.

The teacher hums. Unimpressed. He doesn’t say anything back, so Daniel takes it as an opportunity to make herself as small as fucking possible.

Max comes back to her chair about five minutes after that. Daniel hasn’t moved a centimeter, afraid the teacher’s gonna target her as one of those troubled kids one lesson into the year. Daniel’s not sure she’ll be able to get through a whole other year with a teacher, much less a music teacher, on her back the whole time.

“He is good. Learns very quick.” Max says, after a second of silence.

Daniel looks up from her feet, “Hm?”

“Seb.” Max clarifies. She takes the big ass instrument away from her own concert bendable chair so she can sit. As she places three fingers on three different cords, she continues, “He is very good at the piano. I did not even need to have to teach him basic notes.”

Daniel looks at him. Sun bleached hair, nice smile, nice clothes. It makes sense he’s also good at playing piano. “Cool.”

Max nods. She slides her thumb across all strings of the instrument, making a small dream-like, soft sound emit from it. “And I do not care about the cello, Daniel.” Another soft sound, a small hum from Max. She sets the cello against one of her parted thighs, scratches there for a second, says, “You can touch it.” as she ruffles through the enormous instrument case at her feet, takes out a big stick made of wood.

Daniel smiles a bit. She’s not totally fucked up. “Cool.”

Max smiles too. She tucks an imaginary piece of hair behind her ear, fingers grazing the top of it, and Daniel thinks it’s cute. She blurts, “Do you, like, compose or whatever?” because one half of her hasn’t heard the music Max has started softly playing, and another is weirdly wanton to hear Max’s accented voice again. And again.

“What? No, this is-,” Max chuckles, turns her head from the cello between her fingers to look at Daniel. Her eyes are blue, blue, blue. “This is Rebecca Clark.”

“Oh right, of course it is.”

Max frowns. Her lips form a sort of pout that strongly resembles the face she made when concentrated, playing the piano while explaining everything out to Seb. “I know you do not know who she is.”

“No, I-” Daniel chuckles, brain working faster than it’s supposed to in such a normal, mundane moment, heart pumping blood in parts of her bodies she didn’t even know existed before then, making them tingle and bubble. She feels the impending need to be funny, to be liked too, “She’s like. The really hot one, right?”

Max chuckles again. Daniel grins.

｡･:*:･ﾟ☀︎･ﾟ:*:･｡

yay it's here! the teen cowgirl maxiel is here!

okay, before I let you read this massive 50k words one chapter fic I wrote in approximatively three weeks and was tempted to upload on dan's birthday (July 1st), I have a couple people to thank.

first of all, thanks to the countless people that have supported me through my writing journey. I'm talking friends, commenters, readers, kudo-ers who mean so so much to me. if you're one of them, I hope you'll enjoy this one too <3

second, thanks to my lovely beta reader ennuaj (@eenuaj) without who this fic would not have happened. ever. thanks to my second sort of beta readers as well, jermautism (@jermeows) and ocean (@oceanicorchid) who helped me on the first few bits of the story (love ya). special thanks to jermautism who also inspired me to write a special little scene thanks to THE sketch (aka the banner, thanks so much I love you) they did a while back, you're a real one mate.

honorable mention to the sun who helped me get out of writer's block by dopamine-ing my brain, lots of love.

anyways, thanks are finished; I have a last thought though. this story has been hanging in the back of my mind for a minute (ok maybe a year) and I'm so glad to have finally achieved it. hope you'll like it as much as I do :P

again, thanks to everyone.

lots of love, roman <3

#seventeen doesn't feel that old #formula 1 #f1 #F1 fanfic #f1 fanart #maxiel fic #max/daniel #daniel ricciardo #max verstappen #maxiel #sebmark #oscar piastri #Michelle ricciardo #teen!maxiel #genderbend #rule 63

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