Chapter 1
"I can't believe you're going to a different school." Polly Harper said to her best friend, Piper. They were sitting outside Piper's house, drinking lemonade and reminiscing about their time together.
"I know." Piper responded. "We've been together since like, what – kindergarten? It's crazy that tomorrow will be the first time I'm in school without you."
"Your mum picked a pretty weird time for you to leave." Polly remarked. "I mean, we're going into 12th grade. Senior year is hard, and it's going to be harder now that you're transferring schools."
"Don't remind me of that." Piper said dejectedly. "My mum wanted me to move because apparently Litchfield is a 'better school', which I strongly doubt, looking at the sort of people who go there. I think she was just annoyed that I had a fling with Alex Vause. She thinks Alex is a bad influence, but I thought I'd pleased her now that I'm with Larry. Guess not."
"Is Larry walking you to the bus stop tomorrow?" Polly asked. "That's nice of him, considering its not on the route to his and my school."
"Yeah," Said Piper. "Look, I don't want to think about moving schools any more than I have to. Let's watch a movie, and we can order pizza."
"Kind of like the last supper." Polly laughed.
The two friends laughed and chatted for the rest of the evening, until Polly had to go home, after all, it was the first day of the new school year tomorrow. That night, Piper lay on her bed, thinking about Litchfield High. It was single sex – great – her mom didn't like the idea of her dating girls, so how was sending her to and all-girls school going to help with that? And judging by some of the reviews on the school's website, it seemed like a bit of a shithole. And they all had to wear uniforms, ugly beige ones. Great. She just knew she was going to hate this school.
Piper's alarm loudly rang in her ears as she fumbled for her phone, trying to turn off the infernal racket. Then she remembered that it was her first day at Litchfield, and it would look kind of awful if she was late on the first day. Even if the school sounded rubbish, she didn't want to make a bad impression. She wearily plodded over to her ensuite bathroom and turned on the shower, luxuriating under the hot water. She'd always loved the feeling of getting clean, and she didn't mind showering in the morning at all. When she was finished, she grabbed herself a granola bar to munch, and then did her makeup and hair and got dressed in the ugly uniform.
Then she heard the doorbell ring, and opened the door to see Larry, her boyfriend of six months, standing there.
"Hey Pipes," he said brightly. "You ready for your first day at Lesbian High?"
"It's Litchfield" she corrected him playfully. "And surely if it was really some sort of lesbian school you'd be more worried, especially as I used to think I was a lesbian."
"Oh yeah, when you dated Alex Vause." Larry remembered, closing the front door of Piper's house. "God that girl was a mess, and I heard she does drugs too."
Piper swallowed, trying not to remember the year that she had dated Alex for. It was true, Alex did do drugs, and she had persuaded Piper to try them. Just once though, and Piper didn't like it, so Alex hadn't forced her to take them again, so surely it didn't really count.
"Yeah… I don't know what I was thinking, I must have been crazy confused." Piper shrugged. The couple continued to chat amicably as they walked to the bus stop, Piper frequently checking her new schoolbag to see if she had everything she needed. In what felt like no time at all, the two had reached the bus stop.
"Bye Pipes, I hope your day is great." Larry said, as Piper pulled him into a kiss. The two began to kiss passionately, when they were interrupted by a Hispanic girl standing next to them.
"Gross." She muttered, sounding annoyed. "My first day and the first thing I see is some random chick making out."
"Oh – sorry." Piper replied. "Bye Larry, I'll phone you tonight."
As Larry walked off, Piper turned to the girl, who was standing with her arms folded, looking like she'd rather be anywhere else than at this bus stop.
"Like I said, I'm sorry for before." Piper said to her. "I'm Piper Chapman, and I'm new too."
"Whatever." The girl replied flippantly. "I'm Daya, but don't go thinking we'll be friends or anything – I already know a bunch of people at Litchfield, and my mom teaches there as well."
"Oh, alright then." Piper turned away from Daya as the battered school bus turned up, with the Litchfield logo printed on the side. She climbed on to the bus, and was taken aback to see a tiny girl, who didn't look a day past fifteen, sitting at the wheel. The girl was wearing Litchfield uniform, and had on bright red lipstick, with her hair in pin curls and huge sunglasses resting on her head.
"Um, hey." Piper said, handing over the fare to the girl. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but how old are you? And how do they let a student drive the school bus?"
"Now, don't start worrying, I'm seventeen, I got my licence and everything. And the first thing you gotta know about this school is that the pupils do a lot more than the teachers, they're all lazy shits. Plus, colleges like it that I do something 'different', ya know, service to the school and everything. I've been doing it since junior year, and its actually pretty fun." The petite girl replied, with perhaps the strangest accent Piper had ever heard, a curious mix of Boston and Brooklyn and everything in between. Piper had never heard anything quite like it.
"Oh, cool," Piper replied, still a little in shock. This was quite weird. "I'm Piper Chapman, it's my first day at Litchfield, and I'm seventeen too."
"I'm Lorna Morello," the girl said. "So you'll be in my year then. I'll show you around then, I gotta feeling that you'll fit in with my crowd, right."
"Sure!" Piper said happily. This girl seemed so much more cheerful and friendly than the moody Daya.
Piper made her way down the bus, only to find that most of the seats were already taken, and in fact, there were no single seats anymore. Sighing, she sat down in a seat next to a tall girl with black hair scraped into a ponytail.
"Um, hi." Piper said to her, attempting to make conversation. "I'm Piper, I'm new here."
"I'm Janae Watson. Track captain. You run? We're looking for people to join the team this year." Said the girl.
"Um, yeah, I like anything to do with fitness." Piper said.
"Well, you'd better be good at track if you want to try out, it's real competitive." Janae replied, looking disinterested in Piper and putting in her headphones.
Great, Piper thought. Does everyone here hate me already, except that Lorna girl? I hope she does show me around, at this rate it doesn't look like I'll be making many friends on my own.