A/N: Hey everyone (if there is anyone reading this). So, I've written quite a few snippets of various different fanfics based on OITNB but this is my first time ever publishing anything. Not super sure if I like the direction of this one and I definitely don't like the title. I wrote a large portion of it quite a while ago and didn't really want to reread all of it because I'd probably just end up cringing and deleting it so I apologize for any spelling or grammar errors. Anyway...if you do read this, please let me know what you think so I can decide whether or not to post more. I just picked a stopping point and posted a small part of what I already have written. Anyway, enough rambling. Here it goes:
Piper Chapman awoke at 6:00 AM on Wednesday August 15th; the first day of her senior year. She was beyond excited to be nearly finished at Greenwich Academy, but she was also a bit apprehensive. She had parted ways with her main group of friends toward the end of the last school year. The blonde had only agreed to join their group because she knew her parent would approve, but they were all really mean. It wasn't until the beginning of summer that Piper had decided she was tired of trying to do everything to please her parents. Her parents were never satisfied regardless of what she did, so she figured she would just stop trying so hard. At the age of 16, Piper decided she was going to live for herself instead of for her parents.
She climbed out of bed and headed straight to the bathroom. She washed off her face before applying some light makeup. She decided to add a loose curl to her long blonde hair before heading back to her room to pick an outfit. She grabbed a plain black t-shirt and some light blue ripped jeans. After slipping into her outfit, it was almost 6:45. She grabbed two random socks and slung her backpack over one shoulder. She headed downstairs and slipped on her new pair of Docs. Piper figured she should grab something for breakfast and then she would just eat the school lunch.
When she entered the kitchen she found her mother standing at the sink, staring out the window. The older woman was peeking through the blinds and making comments about their neighbors house (Apparently they had chosen an "atrocious" new color for the exterior). It took Piper a moment to realize that her mother was not in fact talking to her, but rather, was on the phone. The younger blonde decided to just quickly grab a granola bar and a bottle of water and then head to school. She didn't want to be late on the first day. Her mother turned around when she heard Piper opening the cabinets and the fridge, but just continued her phone conversation, not acknowledging her daughters existence. Piper briefly wondered what it would be like to have a mom who liked to hug, or even simply told her to "have a good day". It felt so far away from anything she had ever known.
She made her way down the driveway to her new white mini cooper (her big 16th birthday gift) and was quickly on her way. First day of senior year, here I come.
Greenwich academy looked exactly the same as it had the two previous years she had attended. Same large brick building, same arrogant teachers, and unfortunately the same fake ass students. Piper wasn't too proud to admit she was a bit scared. The blonde was starting senior year with no friends. In fact, she had essentially made enemies out of all of her old friends. There was no doubt that they would be out to get her now. She needed to find a new group to belong to, and fast. No pressure. It was now 7:15 and first period would begin in 5 minutes. The blonde quickly made her way to her first class of the day, history; her least favorite subject. The morning went fairly fast. The first day was always teachers going over syllabi for most of the class and sometimes starting a lecture or assigning reading. Her schedule was AP History, Literature, Speech, AP Calculus, Lunch (she unfortunately had the late lunch period), AP English, Study Hall, and AP Chemistry. By the time she got to Calculus, she was beyond ready for lunch. She was quite hungry and could only hope that there would be something halfway edible in the cafeteria.
Piper was so focused on how hungry she was that she hadn't even thought about how stressful the cafeteria would be. It was like starting high school all over again. The first day of her sophomore year she had wandered aimlessly until a table of slightly snooty (but popular) girls called her over. Today, she went through the line, opted for a salad and a water and then looked over all of the tables. She had no idea where she was going to go. Half of the tables were already full, and the other half were partially occupied by people that probably wouldn't get along with Piper or vice versa. She slowly walked through the rows of tables and was about to head to the library when a voice called out in her direction.
"Hey blondie, over here." She turned to find a wild-haired redhead waving her hand in a 'come here' motion. She looks nice enough, and at least it'll spare me the embarrassment of eating alone outside of the cafeteria.
"Hey." Piper spoke up quietly as she sat down. "Thanks for the invite. I was afraid I'd have to eat alone today."
"You new here?" Before she could answer the question she spotted someone across the cafeteria that caught her eye. She was tall, long black hair with blue tips. She had on a cropped t-shirt that appeared to have a Van Halen emblem and dark jeans ripped at the knees that highlighted her incredible long legs. The lost look on her face reminded the blonde of how she must have looked mere seconds ago. Piper snapped out of her trance and met the other girls brown eyes again.
"Sorry. Nah, I've been at Greenwich for the past two years. I actually used to sit.." She looked over her shoulder, spotting her old friends "..over there." the blonde extended a her thumb in their direction.
"Well shit, a popular girl. No wonder I've never noticed you. I try to avoid eye contact."
"Right.." Piper said with a laugh. "I guess you could say ex-popular girl. In fact I'm pretty sure they all hate me now." She shrugged. The blonde looked back up in the direction of the gorgeous girl she had spotted earlier but she was nowhere to be found. Damn, I could have invited her to join us.
"Ah well, being popular is overrated anyway. What did you do to make them so mad?"
"Nothing really, just refused to let them insult me any longer...I get enough of that at home. Just started saying what I wanted, wearing what I wanted, eating what I wanted. Plus Jessica called me a dyke soooo."
"Well shit. Wedge is a total cunt."
"I mean technically it's true so I can't get too mad. It's honestly for the best, at least she made me realize how toxic they are before it was too late."
"You mean..? You're gay?"
"Yeah." Piper decided to spare her the detailed rant about how sexuality is a spectrum. Plus it felt right- freeing even- to think of herself as gay.
"Damn. I would have never guessed, and I thought my Gaydar was pretty spot on."
"Ah, so you are gay too….?" The blonde couldn't help but smile. She didn't really know any gay people.
"Oh definitely." The other girl wiggled her eyebrows, causing Piper to let out a chuckle.
"Gotcha. I'm sorry, what is your name?"
"Nicky. Most of my friends call me Nichols. You?
"Piper. Piper Chapman." The blonde extended her right hand before she realized how dorky that was.
"Ah, a proper young lady." Nicky accepted her hand, shaking it slightly. A light blush raised on Piper's cheeks. "I totally get it, my mom is a major WASP."
"I think we're gonna get along great." As Nicky was saying this, three more people joined them at the table. A blonde with cornrows, a rather masculine woman with short dark hair and bright blue eyes, and a girl with curly black hair and bright red lips. They all seemed really nice and funny and introduced themselves to Piper. She learned their names were Trish, Carrie (who they all called "Boo" for reasons unbeknownst to Piper), and Lorna. Things were looking up already.
After lunch came AP English. Piper was pretty sure this would be her favorite class, so she was excited. She was one of the first people in there and chose to sit towards the middle of the classroom. She decided to pick up the first novel that was required for the class and start reading. Her nose was buried in the book until the bell rang. When she looked up, all the seats around her had been filled. One person in particular stood out. A few seats in front of her in the next row she spotted long black hair with blue tips. Holy shit, it's her.
English went fairly quickly, and Piper spent the majority of the time staring at long black hair, beautiful broad shoulder, and pale slender hands that came into her view every so often. As a matter of fact, even after English, the girls unique features were on the blondes mind. If only she had gotten a better look at her face. She still didn't know exactly what the girl looked like up close, but she was sure it would be just as enchanting as the rest of her body. Perhaps she would see her tomorrow and invite her to eat lunch with her new group. She sat through study hall and AP chem, disappointed that the raven-haired woman did not appear in any of her other classes. By the end of the day, she was beyond ready to go home. She was exhausted, too bad she had to work tonight. She walked through the parking lot to her car, and headed home.
Piper burst through the front door after her first day as a senior, completely exhausted. It had been overwhelming to say the least. She walked through the foyer to find to mom in the kitchen, nearly in the same exact spot as this morning. This time, however, she was sat at the bar. She was drinking a martini. Piper could only assume it was to deal with her extremely stressful day of sitting around and not cleaning (the house was already spotless as usual) and potentially going to the salon. This thought cause her to let out a sarcastic chuckle. Only then did her mother turn around and Piper saw that she was on the phone yet again. All she got was a simple glance, blue eyes following her form as she walked past the bar and into the kitchen to look for a snack. Her mom was just murmuring into the phone about the woman who did her nails today and her atrocious attitude (and promiscuous outfit of course). She didn't even think about hanging up to converse with her daughter. Piper was not surprised by this, it had always been that way. Didn't mean it hurt any less though.
"Oh, how was your first day Piper?" Piper spoke quietly in a tone mocking her mothers.
"Fine mom, thanks for asking." She continued her mock conversation, whilst rummaging through the fridge. She decided on string cheese, an apple, and a bottle of water and closed the door.
Her mom didn't so much as look up as she walked back past her, deciding to just head straight upstairs and start on her homework. She had work later tonight and needed to budget her time carefully if she wanted to keep up her straight A streak that she had held for the entirety of high school thus far. She had just reached the bottom of the stairs when she heard her mother call out.
"Piper wait!" The young blonde jumped slightly, but turned to make eye contact with her mom across the open-concept home. For a moment she thought her mom was actually going to take interest in her life and ask about school.
"What mom?" She asked with an eye roll.
"Don't you use that tone with me. Is that what you wore to school today?" Piper almost let out a laugh. She knew the direction that this was going. She was honestly a bit disappointed in herself for believing it would be any different.
"Yesss…?" Piper exhaled a loud sigh.
"Piper Elizabeth Chapman those pants have more hole than jean. You're wearing a plain black T-shirt that is wrinkled beyond comprehension…" The younger woman rolled her eyes again. Her pants had three holes tops and her shirt was maybe wrinkled in one place. "And what the hell are those monstrosities on your feet?!"
"They're Dr. Martens mom. And the rest of my outfit is perfectly fine. The only person who has given it a second thought is you. You didn't even notice this morning."
"Well excuse me, I was rather busy this morning." Oh yeah, it takes a lot of energy and time to bash the paint color of a neighbors house to a fellow bitchy housewife on the phone. "And I am absolutely certain I would never buy you boots like that so where did you get them?"
"I bought them myself. With my own money. You know how I've been gone most of the summer because I have a job….or have you even noticed?"
"Do not speak to me that wa-"
"Whatever mom, speaking of which I have homework to do before my shift starts tonight so I gotta go upstairs. I'm sorry you don't like the outfit but I do so…" Piper decided it was best to leave the sentence at that and headed upstairs quickly. Her homework was nothing too intense as it was only the first day. She worked through it quickly, eating her snack in the process, and then started getting dressed for work at. It was 5:30 and her shift started at 6:00. She threw on her black button up, white and black plaid pants, slipped back into her Docs, and grabbed her half apron. She opted to throw her hair in a messy bun before heading downstairs and out the door. She threw her stuff into her car and then climbed in herself. Luckily her workplace was only a 10 or 15 minute drive down the road. Plus her boss was amazing, so she wouldn't make a big deal if she a bit late anyway. She pulled up and quickly dashed in side, grabbing her apron out of the passenger seat.
"Hey Red!" She called out as she burst through the doors.
"Good evening Chapman." The russian woman responded, coming out from the kitchen. She came up to the counter and rested her arms there. Piper stood in front of her on the opposite side of the counter, tying her apron around her waist. "How was your first day as a senior, eh?"
"It was alright, thanks for asking, ma." The 'ma' thing was a recent development. In fact, at the beginning of the summer, Red wasn't sure if she was going to like Piper. However, they had bonded fairly quickly and she learned the blonde was not who she appeared to be. One late night Piper had been particularly upset and opened up to Red about her family struggles. From then on, the older woman had told her that she considered her a daughter and offered for her to call her mom (she had informed Piper that she always wanted a daughter but instead conceived three boys).
"Ah, конфетка...I take it your mother didn't ask."
"Nope. Not a whole lot of interest in me, except to critique my outfit. As usual."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Anything interesting happen that you need to spill. Your second mom loves to listen." The redhead said with a wink.
"Nothing too profound. I think I'm finally ditching my friend group though. I actually sat with this girl named Nicky and a few of her friends joined after a while. We've been in the same grade ever since I skipped Freshman year but I've never really talked to her. She was really nice though. A little crass, but fucking hilarious."
"Well that's good then. It was about time you ditch those суки. Anything else? How were your classes? Any cute boys?"
"I don't know what that word meant but I'm assuming it's an insult." Red nodded in confirmation, her eyes prompting the blonde to continue. "Nothing too interesting class-wise. All my teachers seem alright. No cute boys. There was however this girl...I have never seen her before. I'm hoping she's new otherwise I fear I adopted my mother's narcissistic tendencies."
"Ahhh so you like her?" Another talk she and Red had had late at night was about Piper's discovery that she liked girls. She wasn't exactly sure how to label herself but she knew for certain that 'straight' wasn't it. She remembered how happy she felt to finally have someone to tell who would love and accept her no matter what. She felt so free with Red.
"What no. I mean, I don't even know her. I saw her twice today. Once in AP English and once in the Cafeteria for like half a second. I thought about inviting her to joining Nicky and I but she disappeared before I could even approach her."
"Well I'm sure you'll see her again. Anyway, feel free to tell me more about your day but get your жопа behind the counter and work while you do it, eh?"
"You got it, Red." Piper said with a smile, hopping over the counter.
Piper was currently wiping off the tables as a group had just left and it was nearing closing time. The restaurant closed at midnight and it was currently 11:20. It had been fairly busy for a Wednesday, but the last big group had just cleared out. She was hoping they were the last of the night as she was exhausted and had to get up early tomorrow for school. She finished wiping the tables and moved on to the barstools. She made quick work of wiping them clean and then jumped over the counter (with as much grace as her long lanky body could manage) to clean it from the other side. Just as she turned around though, she found striking green eyes scanning her body.
"That was quite the move, kid." Piper couldn't help but let out a slight gasp, and subsequently blushed. It was the girl from the cafeteria, still in the same outfit and everything. The brunette took a seat at the bar.
