A/N: Well, it looks like I might be addicted to Fanfiction, because this is a new story that literally begged to be written. Basically, if you've read Persuasion, Piper will be like that in this one too, but Alex will be a little more outgoing, like her OITNB self. We'll see how it goes, no promises that it will be any better. Read and review if you want me to continue. :)

Piper Chapman belongs to that select sort of cult seen once in a blue moon. That handful of people, who spend the most painful, difficult years of their life in an institution, only to return years later intent on inflicting the same sort of pain on today's youth. Maybe it makes her a sadist, but mostly it's because it's a damn good school. Naturally, she'd not had to look far for a job after graduating from NYU with a Masters degree in Chemistry (but declining, for the moment anyway, to study a PHD). It quickly became apparent, however, that middle schools or even colleges were not Piper's game. For a start, she was quite frankly too impatient for a bunch of kids going through puberty, but found it rather difficult to keep her college classes under wraps, due to the fact she was only in her early twenties and more interested in going to college parties than teaching those who frequented them. And so the cynic borne deep within the blonde's soul had reared its ugly head and in a moment of slightly askew marksmanship, Piper had sent in her already glowing CV to none other than her old hunting ground; Litchfield Royal Academy, or simply the Academy as it was known by its alumnus.

It would be unfair to say that Piper's application was only accepted because of the fact she'd been a student only a handful of years ago; her portfolio and record in previous jobs was almost unprecedented for a twenty six year old. Most of her students in college had gone on to become doctors, teachers, researchers or the like, and in her first high school teaching job more than half her AP Chemistry class had been accepted into Ivy League schools. Not to mention her literal track record, which included a team of runners that could've put a few Olympic relay teams to shame under her dutiful tuition. But, yes, the fact she'd graduated from the Academy as one of its finest students certainly helped her case. It was an odd sort of a high school; expensive tuition fees and in turn well paid teachers, but there was a delightful spectrum of pupils, ranging from your weed-carrying delinquents to your teenage white girls to your select group of individuals who you simply knew were destined for bigger and better things than a triple period of Chemistry on a dreary Monday morning. Piper had belonged to somewhere between the two final groups; somewhat of a party animal who had half the school's population in love with her free spirit within five minutes of starting a conversation, but with the kind of brain that belonged at the head of a research team in some far off corner of the world. But, alas, Piper's reluctance to ever settle on something concrete or realise that no, she still couldn't handle that fifth shot of tequila, had brought her almost full circle. She was not at the head of a research team, but instead she was in front of her mirror, feeling rather similar to how she did about eleven years ago, an hour away from her first day at the Academy. This time, however, things were different.

Piper was fairly tall, certainly the tallest of her female friends, with the kind of figure models dreamed of; slim, without looking unhealthy, with defined calf muscles and strong thighs typical of a runner. Blonde hair fell in soft waves to below her collarbones, cascading invitingly over slender shoulders. Piper was beautiful, effortlessly so, with the sort of blue eyes that could ruin you and a blinding smile that could end wars. She was not the kind of girl who let her looks do the talking, however; there was a sense of authority in her gait and the way she carried herself, with a commanding glint in her eyes and a slightly condescending smirk often on her face. No, you didn't fuck with Piper Chapman, no matter how beautiful she may be, she's ruthless and pragmatic and if you pissed her off you would damn well know about it. She'd been through the interviews, the all too familiar tour around the school, but today was her first real day on the job. Her first day meeting her colleagues (save for the Dean whom she had the pleasure of meeting a few times prior) and her first classes on the other side of the desk. Nerves crept through the blonde's stomach unsettlingly as she pulled her blazer on and stepped outside into the relatively cool air of New York. By her own standards, Piper was dressed fairly conservatively. Black blazer, white form fitting blouse and a grey skirt (tight, but it was a little longer than mid thigh, which was saying something for Piper) with black patent heels, a silver watch on her left wrist and a couple of simple bracelets on the other. Professional, without being drab. The blonde glanced between her cars for a moment, before deciding if there was a ever a time to make a first impression, this was the day. She wasn't made of money, but she was more than well off, and it showed most prominently in her cars. Thank God for WASPy grandparents and their wills, huh? Piper thought dryly as she took the keys to her R8 and climbed gracefully into the inviting interior of her favourite car. Litchfield was not a place for the poor or weak, and the matte black car certainly didn't give off any sort of impression close to that. No, Piper and her car were confident and demanded attention.

Though, the blonde could never really have prepared for the sort of attention she was to garner in the coming weeks, or even days.

"You ever gonna tell me how you afforded a car like this?" Nicky questioned the girl currently manoeuvring briskly out of the city centre towards their work.

"Nope. I like keeping you guessing." The driver laughed smugly, revving the engine of her Aston Martin angrily at the driver in front.

"Alright, James Bond." The smaller girl shrugged before continuing. "Nervous?"

"Not really." Alex mused, pushing her glasses up her nose a little as the road widened and the traffic began to clear.

"Think you'll get the job?"

"Which?"

"The job." Nicky pressed. Alex splayed her palm upwards to indicate her clueless nature. "Head of Deparment, dumbass."

"Oh. That." Alex had forgotten about the fact her new school had yet to appoint a Head of Chemistry. "How should I know?"

"Well, what's the other girl like?" the Biology teacher enquired with a smirk.

"I dunno, Nicky, how would I? I've never met her."

"What'd the boss man say?"

"Name's Chapman. Former pupil, nice girl apparently." Alex affirmed, drumming her nails off the dashboard idly. Nicky had that annoyingly smug grin on her face that never failed to offset Alex. "What?"

"Sounds like you've got your work cut out for once."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alex said incredulously.

"Well, it's not like you've exactly had much competition for all those other jobs, I mean you're not even thirty and you've been head of department in what... four schools?"

"Five." Alex corrected. Nicky wasn't wrong, but the fact remained that it was more Alex's ability rather than her colleagues inability that got her to where she is."What's your point, Nichols?"

"Well, former pupils can be tough to take down, you feel?"

"We'll see." Alex deadpanned, reluctant to talk about someone she didn't even know. It was unlikely that Alex would be pipped to the post, but Nicky did have a point. She didn't know much about any of her new colleagues, much less the other teacher in the Chemistry department. At her meeting with the headmaster, though, Healy had told Alex her rival was a bright girl with a Masters in the subject (like Alex) and a plethora of accolades behind her. Her first name escaped the brunette, but certainly the paring were around the same age with relatively similar CVs. The other girl may have the aid of being an alumna of the school, but Alex had taught in high schools her whole career and been Head of Department in every single one. It would be rather interesting to watch this one unfold.

How interesting it would eventually turn out to be, however, was quite extraordinary to say the least.

Piper pulled into the parking lot well ahead of schedule, however, it was unusually full of flashy cars already, and only a handful of spaces remained. Huffing slightly, the blonde tucked the Audi between a Range Rover and a Mercedes before gracefully slipping out, grabbing her Fossil satchel before closing the door, locking the car and striding purposefully to the grand old building. It was a fantastic sort of place, tall and imposing but with an inviting sort of charm with a wrought iron gate outside the vast gardens, enclosing the car park and wide cream gravel path to the main building. The architecture looked rather out of place for New York; it was a reddish-brown brick with windows dotted across the front, a low archway as the main entrance but various others obviously located around the campus. Other parts were more modern, of course, but Piper would recognise this place in even the darkest night. Gravel crunched underfoot as the blonde walked briskly over the deserted area towards the archway. It was about eight, the sky rather pale and uninspiring with a weak autumn sun doing little to perturb the chill still hanging loosely in the air which Piper was grateful to escape from upon heaving open the oak doors and stepping inside. The only light came filtering through from the three windows above the doorway, casting a sharp glow over the room. The girl at the desk looked up at her intruder, failing to recognise her. She'd only started last year, after all. Piper ignored her, already knowing where she was headed. There was a meeting with the Head of Science and two other newcomers to his department. The blonde quite frankly couldn't care less about the other two, but it was vital that she got herself off on a good foot with the Head. Piper had refrained from asking about neither the other woman in the Chemistry department nor the man in Biology, because absolutely nothing would come between Piper and that head of Chemistry job.

Well, apart from Alex Vause, maybe.

Alex picked absentmindedly at the Styrofoam cup between her hands as she waited for the meeting to begin in this very room in about ten minutes. It was an informal sort of a thing, so Alex didn't bother bringing anything to take notes or something ridiculous like that. She was early, for once; it was coming up to eight and the brunette hadn't bothered feeling nervous and instead felt rather frustrated that the damn coffee machine wouldn't turn on. The clicking of the pale plywood door disturbed her as in stepped a man who Alex could just tell was going to be unfathomably irrelevant to her.

"Oh, hello." He greeted nervously, extending his hand towards her. The brunette eyed it suspiciously before shaking it firmly with a terse 'Hey' of her own. The two individuals looked at each other blankly before the beep of the coffee machine thankfully interrupted them. Alex gratefully turned back to it, keying in a black coffee and asking the awkward man if he wanted anything.

"Oh, no thanks, I don't drink coffee. Bad for the heart." He explained, and Alex literally had to fight the urge to roll her eyes.

"Right." She replied tensely, instead occupying herself with the comforting smell of the drink filtering delightfully through the boardroom.

"You're uh, tall." He said after a moment. Alex took a long sip from her coffee, attempting to say something that wouldn't make her come off as the massive bitch she so desperately wanted to be right now.

"I've been told." The brunette informed him, hoisting herself up onto the desk rather than taking a chair like her counterpart. Finally, the man seemed to take the hint that Alex had no interest in talking to him for some unknown reason, so he contended himself with thumbing idly through a textbook while Alex sat on the table, legs crossed and typing on her phone. After a rather tense minute or two, the door swung open again.

And, my God, Alex had never been so glad to be sitting down in all her life.

In strode a tall, alluring blonde who Alex just fucking knew was going to be her rival for the head of Chemistry job. She just had that kind of luck. The girl was fucking gorgeous; with the sort of thick hair you would never get tired of running your fingers through and long, tanned legs you would never get tired of having wrapped around your waist. Alex's mouth ran dry, which was a first time experience for her, as the blonde stopped in the doorway for a moment as if unsure what to do with herself.

Really, Piper was just unsure whether she trusted herself to step any closer to the girl currently staring back at her from the table. Who could blame her? Whoever the brunette was, Piper could practically see the sex appeal dripping from the girl directly in front of her. Her white shirt was unbuttoned far too much to even be remotely acceptable, exposing a pale chest and the slightest hint of cleavage. Obviously, Piper couldn't see most of the rest of her figure, but it was evident she was fairly tall. The worst part had to be the fucking way she was sitting, though; it positively killed Piper, it really did. The brunette's legs were crossed right over left, pale and exposed to Piper due to the nature of her black skirt. Red heels that surely couldn't be appropriate for the workplace adorned her feet and her raven hair fell in tousled tresses over her chest. The makings of a smirk played on her red lips and dark jade irises studied Piper intently from behind black-framed glasses. Piper attempted pathetically to clear the lump in her throat by clearing it once and opening her mouth to speak. Unfortunately, Alex did exactly the same thing at exactly the same time.

"Hi-"

"Hey-"

The two women stopped abruptly after talking over one another before breaking into a sublimely matching set of sly grins. Alex hopped off the table, smoothing down her shirt as Piper walked further into the room.

"Piper Chapman." The blonde introduced in a surprisingly clear voice. She put her hand out for Alex to shake, and the brunette rather unfortunately noticed how damn long her fingers were.

"Alex Vause." She shook Piper's hand rather more amicably than she had done with the man's, and tried to ignore the little jolt she got from Piper's warm skin between her own. The blonde was grateful for Alex's strong grip on her hand, because fucking hell, that irresistibly raspy voice and teasing smirk made Piper a little weak at the knees to say the least. "Chemistry, right?"

"Yep." Piper nodded, releasing her hand from Alex's after a handshake that was a hell of a lot longer than it needed to be.

"Same." Alex broke into a wide grin as realisation spread wonderfully across Piper's face. It began with surprise (a quick raise of her eyebrows) before manifesting into something between horror and fear. Alex continued to smirk as the blonde realised she was quite evidently not just going to waltz right back in here and go back to being everyone's favourite; something about Alex told Piper that the brunette was so much more than just a pretty face. Shockingly to Alex, however, Piper's range of emotions didn't stop there; her expression quickly changed into one that was almost smugger than Alex's, a crooked, dimpled grin and a flare of mischief in her sparkling cerulean irises.

"Fantastic." Piper drawled, her voice dripping with invitation. She'd always relished a challenge, after all, and that was simply what Alex was; a challenge.

Right?

It was a rather odd first day for Alex, strikingly different to those at her other schools. Her four classes (one in each year group, while Piper had the others) were generally amicable, with anyone interested in causing trouble quieted abruptly by Alex's low tone. Usually, she had a bit more trouble reigning in her pupils, but the inhabitants of her spacious classroom were surprisingly tame for their first day. Obviously, that wasn't what made it strikingly different. Obviously, what did make it strikingly different was the enigmatic blonde directly next door.

And by enigmatic, Alex means absolutely fucking drop dead gorgeous with a voice like velvet and a formidableness about her that somehow just made her impossibly more attractive.

Not once did Alex hear Piper's voice raised above a conversational tone to her students. There was a storage room between the classrooms, with a few laptops, a TV, a desk, chairs and shelves upon shelves of chemicals and apparatus lining the walls. As the clock struck eleven and the shrill ring of a bell excused her students to break, the brunette found herself in said store room, sitting on top of the mahogany desk and flicking through her lesson plans.

"Do you have an aversion to sitting in chairs, or...?" A smooth voice questioned from the door in front of her. Piper stood leaning casually against the door frame, with a biro in her hand and a perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised in inquiry. Alex regarded her for a long moment, drinking in her lithe form before replying.

"Yeah, it's pretty serious. Dangerous things, chairs." Alex answered cryptically with a quick eyebrow raise of her own. Piper smiled widely, dimples appearing on her cheeks as she walked further into the room.

"I'm sure." She mused, but sat down in one anyway just at the brunette's feet. "How you finding it?"

"Easy, to be honest. I thought these snobby little rich kids would be desperate to go wild out of the view of their WASPy parents, but that's clearly not the case." Alex teased the former pupil. Piper narrowed her eyes in mock annoyance, turning her chair towards the taller girl.

"Well, things have changed, Miss Vause." Piper informed the girl sitting above her.

"Oh, I bet they have, Miss Chapman." Alex countered lowly with a smirk. Piper's eyes widened momentarily at the suggestive tone of her counterpart.

"You'd be surprised." Piper flirted back lightly before changing her tone. "But, yeah, they don't seem like bad kids." The blonde picked at the wood of the table by Alex's thigh, averting her gaze from the brunette's for the moment.

"Always the quiet ones, though." Alex insinuated rather suggestively again, and Piper glanced back up towards the girl with a rather surprised expression. Not that Piper didn't enjoy it, she fucking loved it, but she was rather thrown by Alex's forwardness. The older girl seemed to notice, so she shifted her glasses nervously and the timber of her voice raised an octave or two (disappointingly, to Piper). "So, Healy mentioned something about you being a track coach or something?"

"Did you and he talk about anything other than me in your interview?" Piper asked sarcastically.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Alex fired back without missing a beat. It was so effortless to tease and flirt and banter and whatever else with the blonde, a quality Alex found was a rarity these days. "Was little teenage Piper some sort of athletics star, then?"

"I wasn't a star, per se..." Piper trailed off, returning her gaze back to the table. "I was good, like, but I had to take it down a notch halfway through university."

"How come?" Alex found herself feeling oddly saddened by the girl's despondent tone.

"Tore ligaments in my knee, like wrecked them." Piper explained.

"How?" A delightful blush coloured Piper's face at the question, staining her cheeks a deep pink as Alex noticed, laughing gleefully. "Oh, no, you have to tell me now."

"Oh, God." Piper groaned in embarrassment, covering her face with her hands but laughing despite her discomfort. She eventually removed her hands from her face and leaned back in her chair, crossing her legs much like the brunette and taking a deep breath. Alex grinned in excited anticipation for the story.

"Alright, so it all started with a bottle of tequila and a pork chop..."

The bitter aroma of coffee bombarded Piper as she stepped into the staff room at the end of the day. Most of her colleagues had gone home after a rather uneventful first day, but Piper had a few things to collect from her pigeonhole before following suit. It had been a quiet, slow day, with little to keep her occupied during the regulation distribution of notes for the year and explanations to her classes of her high expectations. Piper didn't do bad grades; she didn't bother with students who didn't hand in their homework. If pupils were going to waste her time, Piper wouldn't even give them the satisfaction of having it in the first place. She thought about the Alex character next door more than she cared to admit, with her infectious laughter and superior grin that never seemed to fall from her face. She was mightily attractive, in a mysterious, sultry sort of way without even having to try that hard. Alex was smart, experienced, imposing to her students but her whole character was absolutely enthralling to Piper.

And that was a really big fucking problem, because she was Piper's one and only rival in the school, and it would just be a hell of a lot easier if the pair hated each other from the first second and never spoke again. It's a really big problem, then, that they'd both felt more than a little dismayed at having to stop their flowing conversation at break time and go back to their respective classes. Another really, really big problem was that the chemistry between the pair was gradually building, crackling loudly between them, filling the store room between their classrooms and the air in the room when they found themselves together. Even now, whilst Piper thumbed through her paperwork while Alex and Nicky stood by the coffee machine, the tension was already increasing at a frightening pace. Piper pretended to ignore it, and Alex pretended to ignore it, and Nicky was as damn clueless as ever. She continued to ramble on about a disruptive student in her AP Biology class, but she could have been talking in German for all Alex cared. Instead, she observed the inviting swell of Piper's ass in her tight skirt and the way she drew pages between her thumb and forefinger slowly before flicking nonchalantly to the next page. Piper stole a few sideways glances of her own, of course, enjoying far too much how Alex stared her up and down, absolutely ignorant to the fact that Piper could see her doing it clear as day.

"So, how's Sylvie?" Nicky questioned, changing the subject as she realised Alex had lost interest. But, of course, nothing could pique her interest but the ravishing blonde about two metres in front of her.

"Who?" Alex replied distractedly, not even looking at her best friend. Truthfully, she was much more interested in the way Piper's eyebrows furrowed adorably as she looked over the words on her page.

"Um...your girlfriend?!" Nicky cried incredulously, basically shouting across the small room. Piper's head raised in surprise from her page, as did the girl's across the room, but it was Alex who fared worst. She blushed, something she hadn't done for years, and turned angrily towards her friend.

"Would you keep it down, you fuckin' animal! She's just fine." She insisted desperately, looking Nicky hard in the eyes. The smaller girl laughed, and to the complete and utter embarrassment of Alex, a knowing chuckle came from behind her. The brunette groaned under her breath before leaning back against the counter, Piper to her left and Nicky to her right. The infuriating blonde continued to laugh smugly for a moment.

"Sounds like you two have some talking to do." Piper managed to surmise between her giggles. "See you tomorrow, Miss Vause." She nodded at the flummoxed brunette before waving to the other few teachers in the room and exiting briskly towards the car park, feeling rather pleased with herself. She'd only been looking through paperwork, after all, yet Alex had actually forgotten her own girlfriend's name. Yes, Piper was feeling quite pleased with herself indeed as she walked confidently up the steps to her car, still chuckling like a madwoman and jangling her keys delightedly. Far, far too pleased with herself, in fact, because her excitement was so great that she proceeded to swing open the door of her Audi far too enthusiastically and much too wide despite the presence of the Mercedes parked close beside her. So, Piper would technically place the blame on goddamn Alex Vause, but really it was her own ridiculous excitability that caused her to put a blatant door-shaped scrape right along the black shell of the obviously expensive AMG, a glaring, harrowing white line staring the blonde back horribly in the face. Her heart fell and a series of expletives streamed from her mouth as the horrified girl slammed her own car door shut and bent down to inspect the damage. She swore again as she realised this was not something she could drive away from and pretend didn't happen. Piper huffed and stood straight once more, stomping back towards the staff room with her trademark temper rising uncontrollably. Fucking hell, you really couldn't write this shit.

"She's definitely, straight, Vause." Nicky insisted, tidying up her files into her bag slowly.

"So?" Alex replied, still feeling rather embarrassed by her slip. "I'm not interested in her, at all. Don't be ridiculous." She whispered, aware of the middle aged woman sitting on the sofa in the middle of the staff room.

"Did you forget to tell your face?" Nicky teased. "'Cause you were looking pretty interested, girl."

"I have Sylvie, remember?"

"Yeah, but last time I checked you're only with her cause you're too damn afraid she'll kill you in your sleep if you dump her." Alex opened her mouth to protest, even though Nicky spoke only the truth, but was interrupted by the crash of door against wall. The three women in the room turned in shock to their guest, who was none other than a very pissed off looking Piper Chapman.

"Which one of you drives the black Merc parked outside?!" She demanded angrily, blue eyes flaring with anger and moving between her three choices. Of course, it may not belong to any of them, but it was as good a place to start as any. A heavy silence greeted her, and she turned to exit with an exasperated curse before a raspy voice pulled her back.

"That would be me." Piper turned back to the owner of the voice that she would be able to pick out in even the most crowded of rooms. Of fucking course. What a surprise. She thought dryly before answering the tall brunette with the infuriating smirk on her stunning red lips.

"Can I have a word, please?" Piper seethed, attempting to conceal her frustration that it just had to be Alex's car that she had damaged. Alex's smirk became somehow more sly as she nodded slowly and shrugged, nudging Nicky slightly before following Piper out of the room, not so subtly glancing at her ass again. Alone, apart from the woman whom Nicky didn't know, the bushy haired girl proceeded to burst into uncontrollable laughter, shaking her head in disbelief at no one in particular.

"What's so funny?" The woman piped up from across the room, annoyed at her quiet reading being disturbed. Nicky continued to chuckle for a moment more before raising her head and wiping at the tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She paused, absolutely astounded by her best friend's manner. Eventually, she answered the woman with another shake of the head.

"Vause drives an Aston, not a fuckin' Mercedes!"