1. Colour my heart.
AN/ Okay. I have ventured into the territory of high school AUs...I think I may not be the first nor the last haha. I was bored and have had a few days off work and wrote this on whim. I have no idea how long this will be...but what I do know is that some people will be like why hasn't she updated her other fic: "You May See the Doctor Now"
Guys...I wanted a break from all the angst so do forgive me.
Please enjoy!
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Alex Vause slammed the door of her truck shut before she lazily sauntered towards the grey cinderblock building standing proudly in the distance. A building otherwise known as Litchfield High School.
It was an ugly building that had managed to escape vital government funding for the last three decades; its exterior and general build a sore thumb compared to the recent new housing built around it. Its walls erected in the seventies were probably full to the brim with asbestos and other cancer causing material. That's if the arctic conditions of the classrooms courtesy of the neglected central heating system - hadn't killed people first.
Alex didn't mind. It meant she was able to wear her favourite black hoodie in class without facing the wrath of her teachers. Granted it was emblazoned with the words fuck the people on the back of it but each time they threatened her with expulsion she had insisted they were song lyrics from her favourite band and was was miraculously left alone when she threw words like first amendment around.
Whatever. Freedom of speech right?
Litchfield High was also home to the worst high school football team in all of New York but despite that, they still somehow had a loyal following of students. Probably more out of tradition than on merit and the fact they were probably the biggest source of income to the school.
Each year the student populace were promised new shiny buildings and actual 21st century equipment that would mean they could finally throw out the computers that still accepted floppy disks and the overhead projectors that had to be kickstarted with a well placed bang. But red tape and incompetent management had made that happening a very distant possibility, so they made do with the circa Windows 2000 computers and the crumbling canteen that doubled up as the gym during physical education class.
High school was thus in both the figurative and literal sense - a shithole.
It was a place where hopes came to die, future losers with a chip on their shoulders reached their peak before they'd probably end up working at their dad's garage in ten years time and people like Alex Vause were forced to endure the previous aforementioned.
Oh. And it was also a place where entitled and snobbish bitches who went by the name of Jessica Wedge exercised their so called god given rights of superiority and just general asshole-ishness.
So it wasn't a massive surprise Alex Vause didn't particularly revel in high school cliches or education in general for that matter. As far as she was concerned school was a ploy to keep the masses in control and allow teenage angst to flourish.
Alex found herself already counting down the hours before she would make the journey back to her car - a thought that occupied her head pretty much every other day.
"Someone care to elaborate on our next topic concerning natural selection?" Mr Hollister's voice boomed across the classroom. Anyone who hadn't been paying attention would be now - that's if their eardrums were still intact - Mr Hollister had a tendency to crank up the volume of his voice to unprecedented levels whenever he noticed the attention of his class waning. "Anyone?"
Alex slouched even further back in her chair, trying to make herself as small as possible and avoid Hollister's direct line of vision. She covertly glanced at the clock stuck on the far wall: just a few more minutes and she was fucking out of here. She probably wasn't going to make meeting up with Nicky Nichols after school, her long time friend whom Alex had known ever since the night they had lain in adjacent hospital beds after a pretty bad beatdown by some local drug dealer who had mistaken them both for his errand girls. Who knew drugs could bring people closer together?
Alex resumed with her doodles, sketching the front-man of her favourite band: The XX. The drawing was almost complete, save for the eyes, they definitely needed a bit more shading.
Suddenly the paper was snatched from underneath her and disappeared into Hollister's beefy hand. "Hey! Alex hissed, sitting upright all self-righteous and equally surprised, "What the fuck are you doing?"
The teacher raised his eyebrow, "What colourful language emitting from such a pleasant young lady's mouth."
Alex rolled her eyes, "You have no right to take my stuff."
"Unless.." He glanced at the sketch, "…drawing band members has somehow become a topic in biology that I don't know about, I'm confiscating this."
"You have no fu- you have no right."
"Nope, Alex. I have all the right. Now that I've got your undivided attention, please answer my earlier question."
Alex simply crossed her arms in response and slouched until it was near impossible, not intent on answering anything
"Sir." A sickly-sweet voice rang behind the teacher, "Natural selection is one way to keep the lesser intelligent and less able people in our society to a minimum. People like Alex Vause for instance."
Jessica Wedge threw Alex one of her signature smug looks just as the whole class erupted into loud raucous laughter, the kind of fake canned laughter that served only to be maximally spiteful and malicious rather than actually be genuinely mirthful.
Jessica Wedge: the high-school cheerleader, the barbie lookalike, the mean girl in every generic high school flick, the super-rich snob whose dad owned this fucking prison like establishment. And also incidentally Alex's major enemy. Her little carbon copy friends were sat beside her, dutifully laughing the loudest and longest.
"Now now Miss Wedge, there is really no need to bring Alex into this." Hollister admonished her.
Before Alex could stop herself she calmly replies, "Old Jess would have known that's the wrong answer. But what would she know? She's too busy fucking the entire high-school football team behind the bike sheds." Alex gave a half-smile, "You should really start borrowing books from the library instead of borrowing STIs from loser fuckboys."
If Jessica's head hadn't been screwed on Alex would have been mildly concerned it was going to imminently shoot off judging from the intense purplish red hue the girl's face was taking. All that pent-up pressure surely wasn't good for whatever the fuck occupied the inside of Jessica's skull.
This time there was tentative brokered laughter dotted with some melodramatic ooh's filling the classroom. Nobody laughed at the class queen's expense (at least not to her face) especially one whose dad owned the place - it just didn't bode well - not the least if you didn't want any dire consequence coming your way.
"You're going to pay for this, Vause." Wedge spat, "Even if that means I'll have to get every last dime from your cheap, broke-ass diner mom."
Okay that kind of hurt. But Alex simply rolled her eyes and gave a massive sigh looking totally unbothered. Her poor financial standing always made its way into Wedge's many jibes and spiteful comments, the coup de grace to horrible stinging remarks, the icing on the goddamn insult cake, and to be quite honest Alex had learned to become less affected by it, more because of the sheer repetitiveness of hearing the same old same old then anything else really.
"I'd rather have a broke-ass mom than a lying cheating one."
Okay that was an unverified statement Alex had overheard through the grapevine but it had the desired effect and it seemed to shut Wedge up who was now being fake-consoled by one of her chums.
"That's it Vause. Get the hell out of my classroom. I've had it with your attitude."
Hollister hadn't even finished speaking before Alex happily grabbed all of her stuff and casually walked out, not missing the teacher's tiny smile underneath all his indignant shouting. If Alex had a microphone, she would have dropped it... also she was going to make her meet-up with Nichols.
Winners all round.
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A few weeks later Alex felt the trajectory of her life take a huge swerve.
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The new girl walked in, her gait hesitant and tremulous. Her head was tilted downwards but she would look upwards every so often, her eyes darting all over the classroom, not resting on anyone in particular. Everything about her screamed out of towner and not from here and judging from her expression, it was as though she had been forced to walk into the mouth of hell itself.
She was clutching a bunch of brand new set of textbooks against her chest and had a bag slewn over her shoulder. Alex watched her take a deep breath as Mr Hollister began introducing her to the class, exactly imagining how she must be feeling; the unwanted rite of passage inflicted on every new kid, it was as painful for the class to listen to as it was for the new person to hear.
"Why don't you introduce yourself as well?" Hollister prompted the girl.
"Hi…I'm Piper Chapman…"
She had a soft-spoken voice that stuttered every words, her tone low and humming like one those audio-books Alex sometimes borrowed from the library when she had taken the maximal allowance of books. She figured the girl was from upstate somewhere, her slow walk matched by the drawled enunciation of her words, so that when she said her name it sounded almost exotic: Piper Chapman.
Alex found herself repeating the name under her breath, liking the way it rolled so easily off her tongue.
She was pretty in a sort of wholesome, all American kind of way, her blonde hair hair falling just onto her shoulders, blue eyes flicking nervously over the sea of faces staring back at her. There was an air of soft untouched innocence about her, like she belonged in a Jane Austen book but had somehow stepped out and stumbled into a 21st century high school classroom, totally lost and out of place.
The girl suddenly looked up, her blue eyes catching Alex's for no more than a split second, and in response drew a small polite smile. A normal smile people gave strangers when they made eye contact. A stranger in the park or the subway or anywhere where strangers generally were.
Alex felt something drop inside her as though she had been unceremoniously pushed off a building, surprised and acutely embarrassed at her obvious floundering, she instantly dropped her head, forgetting she hadn't even returned the smile. You know like a normal person would. After a few minutes of pretending to study the patterns of her wooden desk she stole a glance back up.
Thankfully, the girl had adjusted her gaze back to Hollister who was now beckoning her to take a seat. "Right, Piper Chapman, if you would just take a seat anywhere where there's an empty desk, that would be grand."
There were two. Two empty desks. Alex had checked already.
One somewhere near the front and one beside her. Obviously.
There always had been a space beside her, which was neither unsurprising or unusual considering the whole class pretty much disliked her and would blacklist her in every possible way, however small. All courtesy of Jessica's vindictive campaign against her but also the fact that people didn't like she had apparently once set the school library ablaze one summer. Of course, that was entirely a lie but Alex never bothered to set the record straight, actually liking the slight notoriety it brought her.
Piper walked right past the front desk and sat beside Alex, placing her bag under the chair. She could sense the girl eyeing her with quiet curiosity, it was a look Alex had grown used to. It was a very specific look people reserved for when they spotted her ripped black jeans or the much too large flannel shirt or maybe it was the tribal tattoos criss-crossing her forearm at various points that triggered the look, tattoos that she wore proudly even though it was strictly against high school dress policy. But whatever.
Her outward appearance was a direct contrast to the new girl's yellow flowery dress that stopped just beneath the knees or the prim satchel she carried. She was a walking Abercrombie billboard commercial and Alex would not be seen dead in either item but strangely couldn't even imagine the girl in anything else. It suited her and it suited her good. The girl - Piper looked up and caught her eyes as though she could hear Alex's thoughts out loud and smiled.
This time it was a genuine smile and she looked even more goddamn gorgeous when she was no more than a half a meter away from her. Alex could feel an odd heat stagnate in the pits of her stomach as though her beauty had lit a sparkler sitting inside her, the strange and unfamiliar warmth flowed upwards where it eventually coloured her cheeks.
A voice drifts into her ear all soft and tentative and it's as though it was the answer to Alex's silent thank-yous at Wedge for enabling new girls to sit in empty desks beside her "You like The XX as well?"
Alex looked up, adjusting her glasses, "How do you know?"
Piper nodded her head towards the XX logo Alex had drawn in the corner of her book margins, and smiled when she spotted it, "Oh, you like them as well?"
"Like them? I love them. Their song Crystallised is my particular favourite, it's just so atmospheric." She looked directly at Alex, "Which one's your favourite?"
For maybe a second, Alex felt her mouth dry up. Shaking her head, suddenly annoyed at herself for probably looking so non-plussed.
How was the Alex Vause who people feared and hated in equal measure be so affected? The same Alex who openly defied anyone in a position of authority, who casually smoked green behind the sheds during her lunch breaks, who managed to successfully sneak into every over eighteen club in town with the mere use of a few select words and a well timed waggle of the eyebrow? It was such an unsettling experience.
She quickly had to counter the lost for words silence with something smart and witty to regain her supposed reputation, "Mine's Infinity." (so much for trying to be smart)
"That's a good choice as well."
Alex couldn't help but herself but be in awe at someone like Piper liking a dark band like the XX, "You don't seem the type who listens to their music."
"What is someone who likes them supposed to look like?"
"I don't know. Just not someone like you."
Alex dimly realised she was coming off as rude, so quickly recanted her words and instead amended with, "Sorry, that sounds judgmental of me…I don't mean to be horrible sounding."
"It's okay. My friends said the same thing…especially when I made a massive error by going in all-white to their concert last year." She laughed self-effacingly so that her face crinkled at the corners, making her eyes appear more bluer than it seemed possible. Alex was so caught up in the radiance of the smile she almost forgot to be shocked that this girl had been to the band's concert, something she had never had enough money for - the obscenely expensive tickets way way out of her financial reach. "No kidding! You've been to their concert?"
"You've never been?" It didn't sound at all malicious or even remotely judgmental but it still managed to spark that twinge of embarrassment in Alex whenever things involving money were brought up. It wasn't as though the only reason Alex hadn't been to their concert was because she couldn't afford it - there were a thousand other possible reasons but it still didn't make her any less self-conscious. "No, I haven't seen them play live." She shrugged her shoulders, "You know how fast their tickets always sell out…never managed to get them in time."
"Oh yeah? I spent like three hours refreshing the webpage when they announced the tickets. I was about to give up but managed to get hold of one at the last possible minute."
Relieved, Alex replied, "That is some real dedication."
"What can can I say, I'm a dedicated fan."
Alex chuckled, "Even though you went in all-white?"
"I didn't know they had a dress code... or maybe it was the fact I'm super conscious of wearing black, it makes my face all horribly pale and washed out."
Alex couldn't even imagine that would ever be the case. Piper's face was a picture of sunshine and all things summery and Alex surmised she could spend all day basking in her glow. "I bet you would have looked real good."
Piper didn't say anything for a moment, her eyes betraying pleasant surprise. Alex realised what she had said so quickly added, "I mean..everyone looks good in black. You can't go wrong with black."
That self-deprecating grin again, "That's awfully nice of you to say."
Alex could feel her shit-eating grin threatening to make an appearance again and it was an actual wonder Mr Hollister hadn't dragged her to the front of the class by now and pointed to everyone that Alex Vause, the most broody and sulky person he knew, actually did have the capability to smile like a normal person.
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Sometimes Piper thought of her life as an empty canvas with nothing but a few smudges of paint strewn across it. It was an expensive well nurtured canvas, sure, a canvas any self-respecting artist would be itching to make their mark on with a flick of a brush - but it was a canvas that had been made water and paint proof - destined to forever remain empty and untouched.
That was Piper's life: empty and void of excitement and colour and permanence - at least that's how it felt to her anyway.
They had moved house five times in the last three years. Yes, five. Six if she counted the time she, her mom and younger brother Cal had to temporarily move into their holiday cabin out in New England after a particularly ugly stand off between her parents when her father had been caught with his latest bit on the side.
She had figured out pretty early on the reason for their hasty moves when she had walked in on her father kissing a lady that wasn't her mother one day when she had returned early from school. Since then each discovered affair brought with it removal vans, new bedrooms and new classrooms. It had been her mom's sole solution to problems: run away from them but also bring them with you (her father). Piper had grown used to the new student introductions at each successive school she had gone to, "Hello my name is Piper Chapman. I'm new." "Nice to meet you." and so was she to the goodbyes, "Bye, everyone, it was nice knowing you."
Sometimes she felt like she was the living of a nomad, not knowing why she even bothered unpacking her bags whenever she stepped into a new empty bedroom.
She had never really left a mark at each place she had been to nor had anyone she met ever left any resounding marks on her. None she could actually remember. It was then she found herself thinking back to the girl she had met today, Piper hadn't even asked her for her name which was so unlike her. The girl who she was going to call XX girl for now had a confidence she had never seen in someone, it was a confidence that was edged with danger and adventure, and her laugh…Her laugh had been infectious and sensual yet had induced a sort of comforting warmth within her.
Oddly she had reminded Piper of those roller coasters that take forever to reach the top, designed to build excitement and anticipation and then drop down in an almost vertical free fall into a black gaping hole below, the rush and exhilaration something to be reckoned with. She shook her head, laughing at the strange comparison she had made.
Piper saw her again a couple of days later in the canteen. Dressed in those same ripped jeans but this time wearing a massively disproportioned blue t shirt with slashes of red colour painted onto the back of it. She was eclectic and Piper admired her self-assured conviction. How she was able to casually pull of completely non-conventional styles and still not look overly weird.
She was stood in line about four people ahead of Piper, patiently waiting while the servers placed the food onto her tray. She was also much younger than Piper would have guessed it. Same age as her but she carried herself with an abundance of confidence and quiet charisma that would make people think she was at least five years older.
Piper shuffled forwards, already doing her habitual check on her surroundings, the thing was, she had grown into an expert in picking out the best seat in the lunch hall or anywhere really, seats that would draw the minimum of attention and make her as inconspicuous as possible.
It was always the same divided cliques wherever she went. The nerds, bent over game consoles and re-enacting star wars scenes or something similar. Next to them were the brooding hipsters, camped out with their MacBooks and organic fair-trade coffee. At the far corners of the hall were the would-be dropouts, probably exchanging small bags of weed or shoplifting stories. Behind them were the 'populars' who took up most of the tables in the hall - not because there were many of them but because they were the loudest and lead the most fulfilling of lives. They were all identically clothed out in varsity jackets and Abercrombie apparel, all sporting similar haircuts and makeup wear. And then there were the marginal people, who didn't really fit into a particular clique, the 'miscellaneous' of the high school populace. It was the same everywhere Piper had been, same groups just different faces, they were that interchangeable.
The XX girl didn't really fit into anything or anywhere. She was her own exclusive category of cool and elusive and it confused Piper to no end, because that had never happened.
Just to confirm that she caught Piper's eyes and winked at her when she recognised Piper just as she began walking towards a table. Piper was about to follow her to the seat beside her when she heard someone shout, "Hey new girl!"
She swivelled around spotting a brunette girl decked out in all white, pointing at her and beckoning to the seat beside her. Pretending she hadn't seen XX girl, Piper made her way to what was obviously the 'popular' table. Piper in her Ralph Lauren top and Forever 21 jeans looked exactly like them, slipping seamlessly into the heart of them.
"Thanks."
"No worries, we figured it'd be nice for us to introduce ourselves." The girl answered. She seemed nice and friendly enough Piper surmised, "I'm Jessica Wedge but call me Jess."
"Piper Chapman."
"This is Anna, Jackie, Tom and Liv." The girl pointed at the rest of the group who all waved back at Piper.
She nodded to them all, ignoring the glaringly obvious fact she had been specifically picked out because of her appearance. Wealth it seemed - attracted other wealth.
"So where are you from, Piper?"
That was always a question she had to think about so she settled on the place she had lived in the longest. "Connecticut."
"That's pretty far. What's brought you to this small town?"
Piper shrugged in what she hoped appeared non-committal, "Father's business…moves around a lot."
So Piper was accepted into the group just like that - slipping into her designated place of privilege. It was obscene at how goddamn easy it really was.
Piper knew her routine.
XX girl always sat at the far seat at the third table from the left in the canteen. She almost always sat on her own as if just confirming she was indeed her own exclusive category. She drove a beat down red truck to school that looked like it was way past its formative years but she also sometimes walked as well (even if it was raining).
She never talked to anyone. But she did always give Piper a smile of acknowledgement whenever their eyes met in class or caught sight of one another when they passed in corridors. That was really the extent of their interactions.
One day Piper gathered the courage and asked Jessica, "Who is that?"
Jessica followed Piper's eyes and grinned when they rested on XX girl who was on her way to her usual spot in the canteen - a tray in her hands. "Oh that's Vause. Alex Vause. I'd stay away from her if I was you, she's bad news."
Finally she was able to put a name to a face. Alex Vause. The name rolled around in her head and strangely Piper found that it fitted the girl so perfectly.
"Why?"
"Because she's weird and dangerous."
"i heard she set the school library on fire with her lighter because the librarian had told her off." A guy with a shaved buzz cut hair cut supplied.
"Didn't Vause get expelled for spitting on that female Math teacher who has left now?"
"Fuck! I didn't know about that, I thought it was 'cause she threatened her." Another girl added excitedly.
"Anyway, I'd stay away from her." Jessica chimed in before turning to Alex who by now was about to sit down.
Jessica and the group quickly stood up even though none of them were nowhere near finishing off their lunches. Piper looked around and had no choice but to follow them out.
"Hey!" Jessica suddenly shouted, saying it loud enough for Alex to hear. "Can anybody tell the dyke to let us pass? She's blocking our path."
Piper saw that they had plenty of space to circumvent Alex without even coming near her but she quickly realised it was all just to be spiteful. She saw the girl - Alex's cheeks burn with colour, her lips curling into a thin line as she silently moved out of the way.
When Piper passed her she drew an apologetic look even though she hadn't said anything much less contributed, feeling the quiet anger radiating off the girl. In an ideal situation Piper would turn around and criticise Jessica for the uncalled bitchiness but she was too wrapped in her own insecurities and spinelessness to really do anything about it apart from sending silent messages of support.
"Hey dyke!" Jimmy Highton shouted; a mammoth of a guy who played for the football team and was also Jessica's step-brother. "You want me to show you how I can make food disappear?"
"Get the fuck away from me, Jimmy." Alex countered - her voice weary and tired which told Piper this wasn't the first time she had to deal with him.
Before Piper understood what Jimmy was intending on doing, he grabbed Alex's tray piled with food, snatched it from under her and smashed it onto the linoleum floor, causing food items to roll off into every possible direction. "Ta-da! And that's how you do it!"
Piper recoiled in horror, her face felt cold but her ears were burning from second-hand embarrassment all too aware the majority of kids had turned around and were watching the spectacle from a safe distance: their faces hungry for more, some already fishing out their cellphones from various pockets and bags, ready to film whatever came next.
Alex looked momentarily surprised but acted as though the whole thing was just a minor inconvenience. Piper uncomfortably watched her bend over, picking up splattered food off the floor with practiced precision while the whole time Jessica and her gang rained down their spiteful laughter over her. "It's how she probably eats at home as well, guys." Jessica spoke, "Off the floor."
"Go fuck yourself, Jessica." Alex threw back at her - who was about to say more but wisely stopped when Jimmy took a threatening step forward.
Through the commotion, Piper noticed a stray apple roll towards her, bumping lightly against her sneakers. She looked down and then glanced at Alex who was staring at her intently, the eyes behind her glasses swimming with a rare dose of hope. Piper couldn't escape the injustice and unfairness of it all and yet instead of picking it up and doing the obvious thing - something was stopping her.
Being a member of the popular sect gave her certain immunity from things exactly like this and the unwritten rules governed that if she was seen to be directly contradictory to the actions of said group members than she was out. Shunned and ostracised just like this girl Alex Vause who was more brave than Piper would ever be. So Piper did what she always did which was pretend the problem didn't exist and walk away from it. (She had learned a lot from her mother)
She sidestepped the apple and walked away - nearly choking on the mushroom cloud of self-loathing swirling around her.