Quick Author's Note/Disclaimer: I own nothing but the writing and anything that isn't from the show.
Most chapters will be longer than this, I just wanted to get this up and see what people think of it. So leave a review to let me know whether I should continue on or not. Thank you, have a great day.
Conquering The Darkness
Prison has become more of a home for Nicky Nichols than her actual home. Even though she has only been in prison for eighteen months, it feels much more homey than where she grew up. Her mother barely paid attention to her as a child – hiring nanny after nanny to care for her so she wouldn't have to bother with her. With the neglection from her own mother, Nicky easily took to the wrong crowd and quickly became heavily addicted to taking drugs – most specifically heroin. And thanks to her heroin addiction, she landed herself in prison for four years (which is now only 2.5 years).
Lunch time hits causing the prisoners to fill the cafeteria, impatiently waiting in line for their food. Nicky sits at her usual table surrounded by the usual crowd of people – whom she considers mostly family. She takes a bite of food as she listens to the conversation that is going on around her and out of the corner of her eyes, she notices an unfamiliar woman. Piqued in interest, she keeps her eyes on the inmate – who chooses to sit at an empty table and timidly plays with the food on her tray.
As she gathers her own tray to go sit with the lonely new inmate, she ignores the strange stares her family is giving her. Nicky walks over to the other table, plopping herself down across from the other woman. "Is today your first day here, kid? I'm pretty sure I've never seen ya before…and believe me I know everyone so I would know if you were here before," she says, staring across at her as she takes in her features – short brown curls of hair, innocent brown eyes, and bright-red lipstick.
"First day, unfortunately," the brown-haired inmate responds, a very heavy Brooklyn (possibly mixed with a tad of Boston) accent evident. Her eyes dart back down to her food, she continues to push it around with her fork – not exactly in the mood to eat. "I'm Lorna—erm—Morello, I mean."
Nicky smirks, finding her name to be very suitable. "Lorna Morello, eh? Sounds Italian and hot," she chuckles playfully, but deep down she means it – looking this woman's body over, she longs to have her. "I'm Nicky Nichols; my mother was very uncreative and practically named me after my own fucking last name. So, what'd ya do to get yourself locked up?" Intrigued to know what this petite inmate did would be a bit of an understatement. Nicky couldn't picture her doing something horrible to land herself here.
"Online shopping scams," she mumbles into her tray, grabbing a tiny spoonful of watered-down applesauce. "What did you do, Nichols Nichols? Is your first name really Nichols too? Since you said you're named after your last name…" Lorna laughs a small laugh, hardly able to believe one's parent could be too lazy to give their child a proper name.
"Close – it's Nicole but everyone calls me Nicky, except my idiot mother," Nicky smirks, her eyes pouring into the woman across from her. She isn't too surprised to hear what Lorna did to receive prison time; she doesn't look like the type to do anything too heinous. "Online scamming, ay? Sucks you got caught, kid! What did I do – you really wanna know? I did this thing called drugs. Heroin, actually; I love the damn thing, makes me feel so in tune with life." A dreamy look in her eyes as she talks about her favorite drug of choice.
"Oh, you're a drug addict…Hmm, you don't really look like one," Lorna observantly responds. She always imagined drug addicts to have an acne-filled face, barely any teeth, and raggedy hair. That could be because her parents sheltered she and her older siblings, so she never had the chance to see what people were like outside of the bubble of her family.
Nicky chuckles. "And what exactly would you qualify a drug addict to look like, huh?"
"S-sorry," Lorna timidly answers, feeling bad for her naivety. "Just you know, only seen drug users in TV shows and movies…so I figured that's how they looked in real life. My bad, my bad."
"Ay, don't fret over it, kid. Anyway, I gotta head to work – and yes, we have jobs in here – so I'll see ya around, Morello." Nicky starts to get up, but turns to give one more stare at the brunette, "Come sit with me and my family later for dinner. I think you'll like them."
Lorna Morello aimlessly walks around the prison, after leaving the cafeteria, and silently wonders why she had to end up in such a place as this. She's always been the 'good girl' in her family – she never got in trouble at school or with her parents, she made sure to get straight As, she refused to have sex until marriage (mostly because of her parents' strong Catholic faith pushing her not to), and she mostly kept to herself. So, how the hell did she end up in prison – and for a solid three years at that?
"Hey, new girl," a voice calls out, startling Lorna out of her thoughts. She turns to look at the person calling her, and shivers a bit when she realizes how much taller the woman is than her and how she has a lustful gleam in her eyes. "Mm, look at you – so small and sexy! I sure wonder what the fuck you did to get sent here! Refuse to have sex with an officer, maybe?" The woman nearly purrs, walking closer to Lorna – staring her over hungrily.
Terrified, Lorna starts backing away and when that doesn't seem to do much, she turns and runs as fast as she can in the opposite direction. She continues down the hallway, hoping to get as far away from that woman as possible. Rubbing her temples, she lets out a relieving sigh and heads back to the dorm she's been assigned to. She smiles a bit when she sees the two older women who are in the room – she really likes how kind they are, for prisoners anyway.
"How's your day going, Morello? Made any friends yet?" A short heavy-set Italian woman with short brown hair asks, looking up at Lorna with her dark brown eyes that are heavily outlined in a light-blue eye shadow.
Lorna sits down on her bed, which is right across from the other inmates and the top bunk of another woman's bed. She gives a shrug and half smile. "I mean it could be worse, I guess. And I might of, I think…Some girl – Nicky, I believe – came to sit with me at lunch and said I can sit with her and her "family" from now on. Weird to be calling people in prison one's family, though."
"Without a prison family, it'd be awfully lonely in here," the older Italian woman replies, giving a sympathetic smile. "Oh, Nichols? Oughta watch out for that one – she can be quite the feisty one. Nah, but really she's a good person just has a bit of a temper." She reaches under her bed and pulls out her knitting supplies, getting to work on a blanket she started a while ago.
"You knit?" Lorna arches her eyebrow with curiosity. She watches with content as the older inmate begins to play around with the yarn and needle – it gives her a comforting feeling, and reminds her of her grandmother.
Looking up from her work, the Italian nods. "It keeps me busy, and my grandkids love homemade blankets and what have you. I'm too old for all the prison drama that goes on, so this is my outlet."
"Who was that you went to sit with at lunch, Nichols?" A woman with blonde braided hair questions curiously, staring up from her job assignment and over to the redhead.
"Probably just someone she's trying to get in the pants of," another inmate retorts, causing the room to fill with laughter and snickers.
Nicky rolls her eyes while flipping her middle finger up at them, and then turns back to the blonde. "Her name's Morello – Lorna Morello – and no I didn't just sit with her because I wanna have sex with her, although that would be nice! She was all alone, and I being the nice person that I am, decided to give her some company. And I told her she can sit at our table from now on."
Tricia, the blonde-haired inmate, nods with a smirk. "Sounds like you're already plotting how to go about getting her to have sex with you." She knows all too well how much Nicky loves to have sex and the lengths that she will go to satisfy that love. "What's she look like, anyway? Is she hot? I mean it don't really matter to me, since I already got myself a hot girlfriend."
"Hot, stunning, beautiful," Nicky smirks, her mind lusting heavily after the young woman. "She's petite and Italian – brown hair, brown eyes. And apparently enjoys wearing bright-red lipstick, which of course makes her even hotter. Oh, and I can't forget her accent; very distinct and noticeable."
"Uh-huh, sounds like somebody here is gonna be getting a sex-fix soon!" Tricia laughs before the CO yells at both she and Nicky to get back to work.
When dinner time finally arrives, Lorna slowly walks to the cafeteria to get her tray. She looks around at the tables trying to find the one that Nicky told her to sit at. Relief washes over when she notices a familiar bush of red curls and makes her way to the table. She sits down – a few inches away from everyone, nervous as to what they might do. "Uh, is it all right if-if I sit here with you guys? I mean Nichols told me I could earlier…but you know if the rest of you don't want me to I'm sure I can find somewhere else to sit. It's, it's no big deal," her voice shakes somewhat as she stares timidly down at the food on her tray.
"Hey, kid, if I tell you to sit with us – then it's okay. These guys don't care as long as you don't try to steal their food; food is what they live for," Nicky jokes, looking over at the petite woman. She notices how she's distanced herself from the rest of them and gives a reassuring smile, "You don't have to sit that far away, kid. No one's gonna bite your head off or anything! Come on, get over here." She pats the empty spot next to her.
"What's your name?" A soothing voice asks, belonging to an older woman with spikey white-blonde hair and a kind smile on her face. "You look too nice to be in here."
Moving down to sit beside Nicky, Lorna looks down at her food as she aimlessly moves her fork around. "Lorna Morello," is her small response, suddenly not quite in the mood to socialize. She dreads that this is her 'home' now and that there's still so many days she must wake up here.
"Morello? Must be another fellow Italian. Have you met Anita yet? She's Italian too," the older inmate wonders, and smiles when she gets a nod from her. "Anita's a nice person – she's always knitting things for her grandchildren."
Just now realizing Lorna's presence at her table, a short black-haired inmate – with a tattoo covering her entire arm – smirks at her. "I believe we've already met, haven't we? You gonna tell us how ya got in here, little sexy Morello?" She brings one of her fingers up to her mouth, licking it as she gives a wink to the horrified brunette.
Swallowing heavily, Lorna timidly stares down at her tray. She's not sure how long she will be able to survive in this place. "Uh well uh—"
"It's okay, kid – ignore Boo, she's just trying to get under your skin. Just eat your food, you don't need to tell us anything," Nicky says firmly, looking at the brunette. And then she stares harshly over at Boo, giving a kick to her leg under the table, "Cool it. You're gonna give the poor kid a heart attack!"
Boo rolls her eyes, blatantly irritated but doesn't say much else.
A few minutes go by and joining them at the table is the prison chef – a middle-aged Russian woman with sharp-red hair, hard blue eyes, and permanently arched eyebrows. "I see we've got a new friend here today," she says, a very thick accent to her voice. She stares at the new inmate, easily noticing how nervous and afraid she seems to be, and puts on a friendly smile. "Don't look so sad – it gets easier with each day you're here, honey."