A/N: It's possible I have an AU problem and need to be stopped.


Session One

It'll be just like babysitting.

That's what Piper tells herself when she applies for the summer counselor job, conveniently pushing aside the fact that babysitting is usually for only several hours at a time, while the camp is an eight week, 24/7 endeavor: two four week camp sessions, with less than forty-eight hours separating the two.

It's a co-ed camp, for kids ten through fourteen. Piper was hoping to get the ten year olds, the girls not yet corrupted by middle school and all the drama and gossip and image that goes along with it, but she gets twelve year olds. Nine of them, according to the list of names she's given upon arrival, assigned to the Spruce Cabin. There are two counselors per cabin, and to Piper's relief they seem to be set up so newbie counselors are paired with a veteran.

Piper's veteran is Nicky Nichols, a short, wild haired girl with a perpetual smirk. She's here for her third summer, though Piper wouldn't have pegged her for a career camp counselor, so to speak. She throws her bags unceremoniously on one of the two twin bunks, eyeing Piper as she does so. "Ever done this before, Blondie?"

"What? Oh, not camp, but I babysit a lot..."

"So, no." She smirks. Or, well, strengthens her existing smirk. "Should be fun. We get the little brats right at the edge of puberty. Fuckin' magical time."

The first morning is spent with the counselors scattered around the gymnasium that doubles as an auditorium, waiting for either of the camp's directors to have a spare few minutes for the intro meeting. Nicky abandons Piper as soon as they get inside, calling loud, enthusiastic greetings to the other returning counselors. Piper sits by herself on the edge of the stage, flipping idly through her packet, looking at the schedule for the next month, the list of activities and a brief description of each one.

There are a few boxes of craft supplies in the center of the stage and, glancing around, Piper can see some of the girls are making cabin decorations. For something to do, she gathers a stack of construction paper and markers, spreads the list of her kids names in front of her, and starts writing, the letters big and loopy and colorful, thinking she can paste them over the door of the cabin.

Nicky doesn't seem inclined toward decorating; she's sitting on the floor next to another, equally smirky girl, and unexpectedly, Piper finds herself staring. Even sitting down, the girl looks tall, with her black hair and black glasses and a smattering of tattoos that confirms the camp administration is fairly chill in their hiring of counselors. Or maybe she'd started working here before she had them; there's an easy, familiar rhythm between her and Nicky, visible even from the out of earshot distance, that suggests she's also a returning counselor. Nicky says something that cracks the other girl up, and Piper feels a swoop of odd, obscure jealousy.

She stares for a moment longer, hoping Nicky will look up and catch her eye, wave her over and make introductions, but it doesn't happen. Piper returns her attention to her crafting, figuring she'll meet everyone later. For some reason, she decides to be pointlessly, cutely clever, giving each name card a theme, a design of something that starts with the same letter of each kid's name, and it becomes so absorbing it takes Piper a second to notice someone standing over her, watching as she finishes up the last card.

When she finally looks up, the girl with glasses is grinning with one side of her mouth, looking endlessly amused before Piper's even uttered a word. "Ambitious," she declares, indicating the stack of paper. "Probably good thing you're stuck with Nicky...her slack needs to be scooped up with a goddamn wheelbarrow."

"Heard that, Vause!" Nicky yells from the gym floor.

The girl ignores her, thumbing through the stack with a critical eye. "Although...it's a little presumptuous of you." She holds up a blue sign. "What if Brook has a crippling fear of bumblebees?"

Piper digs her teeth into her lower lip, smiling nervously, unable to quite gauge the level of jest. "But these are so cute."

"Mmm-hmm..." The girl arches an eyebrow. Her eyes feel tight and narrow on Piper's face, but Piper can't seem to look away from her, even when she turns her attention away to peruse the rest of the stack. "And maybe Caitlin's more of a dog person. People have intense opinions about that, especially twelve year olds."

Piper makes a grab for the papers, but the girl holds them out of her reach, laughing softly. She flips to another sheet, and Piper finally releases her entire smile, cutting the other girl off before she can say anything, "Okay, if Sarah doesn't like sunshine, she's coming to the wrong place."

The girl's eyes light up, seemingly pleased with the pre-emptive retaliation, and it makes Piper feel warm and frazzled. "Fine, that one I'll give you. But..." She holds up a red sign, the one Piper just finished. "Turtles? Seriously?"

"I couldn't think of anything else!"

"Trees? Tigers?" She flicks her eyebrows up and down. "Tequila?"

In a quick motion, Piper snatches the pages away, ducking her head momentarily in an attempt to reign in the blush on her cheeks...and her ridiculous, traitor smile.

When she looks up, the girl's still grinning at her with something like fascination. "It's Piper, right?"

"Yeah. And who are you?" She tries to make it sound like a challenge.

"My name's Alex."

The syllables of her name round instantly in Piper's throat, like she has no choice but to echo them. "Do you alway make fun of the newbies, Alex?"

Alex's smile tilts, her eyes roving over Piper's face like she's searching for something. "Only the pretty, crafty ones." She lowers her voice, conspiratorially. "Arts and crafts has always been my weak spot. Can't let the kids know, so I need someone to fudge off of. If your woven bracelets or pipe cleaner flowers start to go missing, don't bother looking for them."

Piper laughs, and Alex looks smug about it, but really she's stuck on the pretty.

Red and Gloria, the co-directors the camp, choose that moment to finally make an appearance. Red orders everyone off the stage and into the three rows of folding chairs, Gloria barking reminders that the parents could start arriving in only two hours, as if they're the ones who've been kept waiting.


They await the kids' arrival on the small porch of their cabin, giving Piper the first chance to survey everyone's cabin match ups. Across the small lawn from her and Nicky's cabin are Alex and Poussey; between Alex's tattoos and Poussey's sleeveless Staff shirt, tucked into high waisted shorts and paired with huge gold earrings, it's pretty clear they'll be the Coolest Cabin.

Piper had met most of the others, however briefly, in the aftermath of the meeting: Lorna and Daya, Janae and Suzanne, and Flaca and Taystee are the other cabins visible from Piper's porch.

She starts to get nervous the second the very first kid appears on the lawn, a tiny braided ten year old flanked by parents and a younger sibling, and directed by Red toward Jane and Suzanne's cabin, but within the next half hour, Piper quickly realizes that, to twelve year olds, she and Nicky are unfathomably cool by mere virtue of their age. Most of them are returning campers, so even the parents are less nervy and suspicious than they might be.

Once it starts, everything moves fast.


Every Sunday, including that first night, the kids sign up for their activities for the week, six a day. The counselors get assignments at the same time, and rotate through just like the kids, two or three of them monitoring every activity, so they end up interacting with a lot of kids, not just those in their cabins. Within the first week, Piper gets the full camp experience: she hikes, kayaks, swims in both the overly chlorinated pool and the lake, does arts and crafts, plays dodgeball and soccer and ultimate frisbee, tie-dyes T-shirts and monitors a ropes course.

There are three meals a day in the mess hall, she and Nicky at the heads of a table with their girls on each side, talking over each other in their hurry to recount their most recent activities. Once a week there's something special about dinner - a cookout by the lake, bag dinners for a picnic on the sprawling lawn by the mess hall. There are nightly campfires by the line of fire pits near the lake, with singing or ghost stories or counselor skits. Usually they pass around some easy bulk snack: Doritos or mini Oreo packs or Rice Krispie Treats, but every Friday there are S'mores.

The counselors start to accumulate an excessive amount of handcrafted jewelry. Cabin pride blooms fast and furious, with handshakes and chants and, in the case of one enthusiastic boys cabin, a rap.

By day three, all the girls in Alex and Poussey's cabin are wearing winged eyeliner. Suzanne, who to be honest Piper had been surprised anyone was allowing to take care of children, seems to have at least one of her ten year olds permanently attached to her hip, gazing up at her adoringly. Lorna and Daya's girls start coordinating their hair: french braids one day, milkmaid's another. Nicky and Piper have established comedic personas that essentially consist of Nicky loudly making fun of Piper while Piper pretends to hate being stuck with Nicky. The girls love it.

Piper loves their kids, all of them (even though Brook literally never. stops. talking.). She loves how pleased they are to present her with some beaded bracelet, how much time they spend devising an eleven person handshake, the way they all rush to get the seats beside her and Nicky both at meals and during the nightly campfire. She loves their cabin circle every night before Lights Out, sitting on the floor surrounded by bunk beds where they share their Highs and Low points from the day (a tradition, according to Nicky) and then swap stories from their pre-camp lives. She even kind of loves the care they take in their appearance, crowding in front of the big bathroom mirror every morning with make up and hair products, as if they aren't all heading outside into sweltering sun and thick humidity, and possibly even pools or lakes. There's something sweet about their preteen efforts.

Camp is built on routines, and the counselors have their own. Every night, Piper and Nicky hang out in their small room, adjacent to the girls', playing cards between their twin beds and listening for the whispers and giggles on the other side of the wall to gradually fade.

Then they head outside.

The girls cabins are in two long rows with a stretch of soft, well maintained grass between them, placed there so Red or Gloria can ride through on golf carts during their periodic checks. Between thirty minutes to an hour after Lights Out, the female counselors have taken to gathering in a circle, dead in the center of the cabins. The boys cabins are up a hill (and, according to rumor, much more primitive), too far of a radius for the guys to venture down while the kids sleep.

So the girls lounge on the grass, passing around sports bottles full of liquor or wine. Much as she loves the kids, those hours are usually Piper's favorite, when the summer heat turns pleasant rather than oppressive, the alcohol wrapped thinly around her brain, just enough for a quiet buzz, and there's an almost endless sweep of breathless laughter as they swap "campers say the darndest things" anecdotes. Occasionally a camper or two will come outside, confusedly looking for their counselor, usually sent as an emissary from the others to report a fight or homesickness or someone who refuses to turn off a light. Whenever a kid has to tentatively approaches the circle, there's always a mingling of shock and fascination in their expressions, the sort of look that comes from running into a teacher at the grocery store.

Sometimes, most of the time, when someone makes a joke, Piper finds herself making eye contact with Alex, wherever she is in their circle. It makes no sense, why she's the person Piper instinctually looks to to share the mirth. Except, when it happens, Alex's eyes always seems to be darting to hers, too.

Piper's not sure what the hell this is, what it is about Alex Vause that makes her overly aware of her own skin. She likes all the other girls, is genuinely making friends with most of them, but Alex is the first person she looks for in a crowd. It's like she's the brightest thing in any room, as if everyone else can't help but blur at the edges when she's around.


Piper and Taystee are overseeing a group of kids playing archery when one of Piper's girls who definitely isn't in the archery group comes running over, pale and stricken. "Piper?" She's standing about ten feet back, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

Piper and Taystee both look back. "Hey, Sarah, you okay?"

The girl looks nervously at the other kids, who are starting to turn around, curious as to the interruption. She waves her hand at Piper, gesturing for her to come here.

When Piper's in front of her, out of earshot of her own activity group, Sarah whispers, "I'm...bleeding."

"What? What happened?" Piper's already on autopilot, scanning the girl's arms and legs for evidence of a fall.

"No. Like..." Sarah lets her eyes dart downward, face beet red and miserable. "Bleeding."

"Wha...oh. Oh." For a moment, Piper's at an utter loss. She'd gotten her period when she was thirteen, and her mother had merely handed her a box of pads and said, nervously, They've explained this to you in school, yes?

But then her good sense kicks in, and she schools her face into a calm, dismissive expression. "Not a big deal. Just give me a second..." She jogs over and whispers to Taystee, who grins immediately and shoots Sarah a covert, congratulatory thumbs up. Piper puts a reassuring hand on Sarah's shoulder and steers her away from the archery station. "Now, what activity are you supposed to be in?"

"Volleyball."

"Do they know you came to find me?"

"No, I said I was going to the bathroom."

"Okay, we'll just stop by there first, okay? You gotta make sure whoever's in charge always knows where you are."

After a quick conference with Daya and John Bennett, who seem to be taking a very hands off approach in their participation in the volleyball game, Piper walks Sarah to the nurse's tent, which is much closer than the cabins. Half an hour later, Sophia sends her and Sarah away armed with boxes of tampons, pads, and all the vagina information they need.

The activities have rotated by the time they've dropped everything off at the cabin; Piper hopes Taystee told whoever she was supposed to be paired with on paddle boating why she'd be late. She drops Sarah off at Capture The Flag (probably a bad day to pick so many active activities, but at least her schedule isn't crowded with swimming and slip 'n slide), where Alex and Janae seem to be acting as both referees and team captains.

Janae's at least as competitive as any of the kids, as usual, running and yelling instructions like it's a professional sporting event. Alex, on the other hand, seems to view the game as more of an entertainment opportunity, going from cluster to cluster of kids and yelling over the top encouragement that's probably meant to be a direct parody on Janae's intensity.

Piper stops for a moment to watch. She doesn't know why, exactly, but she really likes watching Alex with the campers, to the point where she keeps getting momentarily distracted from her own girls during meals or the campfire because she's straining so hard to eavesdrop. Alex is just so damn cool, most of the time. She practically oozes it. In the circle at night, she doesn't talk much, just stretches out on her stomach or leans back on her elbows and listens, smiling that lazy, confident smile and making eye contact with Piper and very occasionally chiming in with some perfectly timed, snarky one liner.

But with the kids, Alex is different. Sure, she keeps the snark and sarcasm on hand for when the campers are being particularly teenage (even the ten and eleven year old get occasional waves of too cool for this attitude, and with the older kids it's practically a daily occurrence), but when they let her, she has no qualms about going full Dork.

(Tall, gorgeous Dork, running around the Capture The Flag field in her athletic shorts and a sweat soaked T-shirt, the outline of a sports bra visible in the back. God.)

Piper's almost forgotten that she has someplace she's supposed to be when Alex suddenly stops her goofy running, turning her attention to a kid who's just sat down on the sidelines by himself. A boy, likely one of the ten year olds, blonde and freckled and small for his age with round Harry Potter glasses. Piper recognizes him from other activities...Ben something, she doesn't know who his counselor is, but he's usually signed up for the pool or the arts and crafts room or even the occasional board game slots. The quiet, indoorsy type.

Alex jogs over to Janae and says something Piper can't hear, then heads off the field to sit down next to Ben. She immediately mimics his demeanor, folding her long legs up best she can and picking absently at blades of grass; after a second, she says something that makes him burst into laughter.

Piper can't help but smile, watching them. Even from the distance, she can see Alex is treating it like a very real conversation, none of the don't you think you ought to join in and play? bullshit, and she can see the little boy practically glowing from the attention.

Piper doesn't exactly blame him.


That night, in their circle, Taystee asks Piper how everything worked out and then insists they all take a shot to Sarah and her newfound womanhood. Piper's half-amused, half-bizarrely embarrassed on behalf of her camper, but it leads to a good hour or so of swapping first period stories.

Taystee's in the middle of hers, which apparently arrived in fifth grade in the middle of a timed multiplication test, when Red, with Norma driving silently beside her, rides stealthily up on her golf cart. Taystee's on such a roll she doesn't notice when everyone directly across from her in the circle stops laughing.

"...and I had no choice but just sit there and finish the damn test fast as I could, cause no way I was gonna let that lil motherfucka Derek Cassidy beat me - " Red thwacks her on the back of the head.

"If these girls all go home with potty mouths, I'm simply going to give complaining parents a list of phone numbers for certain counselors."

Piper glances around the circle, amusingly monitoring which counselors immediately school their faces into overly angelic expressions (Nicky, Flaca, Alex, and Cindy).

"Aw, Red, I don't talk like that in front of the shorties," Taystee assures her. "That's just for our time."

She gestures around the circle. In spite of the supposed camouflage afforded by the plastic sports bottles, everyone who happened to be holding one seems to be taking great pains to make it as inconspicuous as possible.

Red makes a skeptical little pft sound, but then turns her attention to the group as a whole. "Everything go okay today?"

Either she or Gloria swings by to ask this every night, wanting to know if there were any incidents, or if any campers are having a hard time. Everyone nods and murmurs affirmatives, glancing around, waiting to see if anyone's going to speak. In lieu of serious news, Nicky announces, "One of ours became a woman today." She slings an arm around Piper's shoulder. "We're so proud."

"How wonderful for her," Red deadpans. She climbs back onto the golf cart, nodding at Norma to go. "Not too late now, girls."


For the rest of the week, Piper watches Alex more and more, and she starts to pick up on her pattern: the way she always makes a point to go talk to any kid standing on the edge of an activity, the way she hangs back to walk with any lonely stragglers, even if they're not her own campers. There's something sweet and unexpected about it, though Piper has no idea how she could presume to expect or not expect anything about Alex Vause.

Still, even though Alex extends this treatment to many campers, Ben's the one who gets attached.

He walks by Alex's table at every meal to say hi, runs up to her during every activity rotation, asking hopefully if she's running whatever slot he's signed up for that block, even has to be corralled by his counselors (Bennett and some slightly chubby, blonde dude bro who looks like he arrived straight from his frat house) during campfires or the occasional large scale mass recreation period. Piper observes all this with amusement, inarguably smitten by how sweet and patient Alex gets when he's around. Alex's campers find it endlessly hilarious, and every time Ben trots away they start teasing their counselor about her booooyfriend, which never fails to make Poussey (and Nicky, if she's paying attention) laugh her ass off.

It happens one morning at breakfast, when Ben makes his customary walk by Alex and Poussey's table to say hi.

"Hey, Alex," he smiles shyly.

"Benny Boy! Morning."

He usually moves on after that, endlessly pleased with even minimal interaction, but right now he's hovering, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet and casting frequent glance back at his own table, all of whom are watching expectantly. Piper turns around and catches Nicky's eye, nodding at the scene playing out at the table behind them; something's obviously been planned.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

Ben starts laughing, red faced, then casts a glance back over his shoulder. Fratty Counselor makes a get on with it gesture. He turns around to his other campers, and soon the whole bunk is chanting, "Do it, do it, do it!"

Ben rolls his eyes and sighs, laughing nervously to show he's in on the joke. He pulls out a plastic wrapped ring pop. "I'm supposed to ask you to marry me."

The girls at Alex's table (and Piper's table, and all surrounding tables) start squealing with mirth, while Ben's cabin mates burst into whoops of delight. Ben himself is starting to look like he wants to sink under the table, so Alex grins at him, leaning close and whispering, "That wasn't really asking, buddy."

"Oh right." He takes a breath and rushes through the words, "Willyoumarryme?"

Alex gives a long, exaggerated nod. "Sure thing."

Released from his duty, Ben practically throws the Ring Pop at her and hurries back to his table as his counselors lead the whole cafeteria in a round of applause.

At the end of breakfast, when the kids are lining up to return their trays, Nicky says loudly, "Hey, Vause, wish I'd found someone to bet me on you ever getting engaged to a guy. With those odds, I'd be rolling in cash right now."

Alex turns her body away from a nearby group of campers and props her middle finger underneath her chin.


That night, out on the grass, is one of those nights that quickly dissolves into smaller pockets of conversation, and Piper's lying stretched on her back, half asleep, when she feels someone kick the toe of her shoe.

She opens her eyes. Nicky and Lorna are looming over her. "Hey, Chapman, I'm gonna go hang in Morello's cabin for a bit."

"Yeah, we're trying different shades of lipstick," Lorna says enthusiastically. "I'm real good at tellin' what works best with someone's complexion. You wanna join?"

"Yeah, Chapman, wanna join?" Nicky repeats sincerely, turning her head slightly to give Piper a look that says, in no uncertain terms, she is not to join if she wants to avoid bodily harm.

"No, thanks, I'm just going to hang out here for a bit. Thanks though."

Nicky nods approvingly. It's a sympathy worthy crush, but Piper had been unequivocally relieved as soon as she got wind of it, for reasons she's not quite ready to examine too closely.

Piper sits up, debating if she should just go to bed a little earlier than usual - she'd had an activity run of soccer, kayaking, hiking, and softball before she'd finally escaped to the merciful AC and chair filled arts and crafts room, and her whole body is feeling the effects. People are already scattering, fewer counselors lounging on the lawn than normal.

"Hey, yo, we're gonna walk down to the lake if anyone's interested," Poussey, standing with Taystee and Cindy, announces to the general crowd.

Piper's instinct is to refuse. They're technically not supposed to be that far away from the cabins, even though there's a general, unspoken sense that by this far past Lighrs Out, things are pretty okay as long as there are a few counselors close by. Exhaustion aside, Piper doesn't feel like testing the rules too much, especially with Nicky in a state of distraction two cabins over.

But then Alex stands up, says, "I'll go," and without any further thought to the matter Piper hears herself say, "Me, too."

They take the narrow, shortcut path through the woods to get to the lake, and Alex and Piper fall naturally into step together behind the other three. Piper shoots her a light, teasing smile, "So it seems congratulations are in order."

For a second, Alex looks blank, but then understanding dawns and she grins. She shrugs, oh so casually, affecting a tone of exaggerated false modesty. "Oh, you saw that?"

"It was quite touching."

"Wasn't it? I'd ask you to be in the bridal party, but I've already got like nine thirteen year old bridesmaids. Unless you have any interest in Flower Girl"

Piper laughs out loud at that. "Maybe. It would depend on my dress."

"I'll see what I can do." Alex rolls her eyes. "Really, though, the girls won't shut up about it. Like, they know it's a joke, but they also apparently need to hear me admit it's a joke. Which I refuse to do. I'm like a parent forcing their teenage kid to still believe in Santa."

Piper laughs, then after a few quiet moments adds, more seriously, "You're really sweet to him. Ben, I mean."

"He's a good kid. I'm kinda hoping this gives him some cred with his bunkmates. He always seemed like the odd one out."

They're quiet for a moment, walking down the path at a leisurely pace, falling even further behind the others. There's something knowing in Alex's voice that strikes a chord in Piper, and not for the first time she wonders if the care Alex takes with the left out kids has something to do with experience.

But that's almost too hard to imagine.

"HEY!" Cindy's voice echoes through the trees. "Y'all bitches get Taken or some shit? Cause you know we'd die first in the horror movie, so I ain't hauling ass back to rescue you, no offense."

"Then why even ask?" Alex yells back.

"Obviously, so I know if I need to run the fuck away from somethin'!"

They laugh and quickly jog to catch up, emerging from the woods just next to the fire pits. Taystee's standing up on one of the benches, hands folded primly in front of her, singing a low, dramatic, operatic version of Kum Bah Yah. Poussey's stretched out on the bench beside her, offering occasional harmonies between giggles and puffs on a joint.

"Oh, hell yes," Alex mutters, eyes on the weed. She doesn't sound surprised by its presence; as Poussey's bunkmate, she'd probably known the real reason for this excursion, which probably explains her willingness to join.

Poussey extends her arm to Alex, who takes the joint between two fingers and takes a long, generous hit. When she finally exhales, she holds it out, voice slightly strained, "Piper?"

Piper hesitates, unable to gauge if this is a crowd where she can admit she's never smoked pot before. Poussey speaks up, "It'll make the star gazing way better."

"Truth," Cindy nods the affirmative.

What the hell. Piper nods, accepting the joint from Alex. She likes that there's a fresh ring of lipstick on it. She inhales, the taste familiar in the strange way that means I've definitely smelled this before. She isn't entirely sure she gets any in her lungs, but she manages not to cough until a few seconds after she exhales, and luckily none of them act like it's too unusual.

They give the joint another go round, with only Taystee abstaining, and then they head down the slight slope onto the pier, Poussey and Alex passing it quickly back and forth, pinching what's left between the very tips of their fingers and taking short shallow puffs to finish it off. They ditch their shoes by the shore of the lake and file out the very end of the pier to lay down in a row, flat on their backs.

Piper's not actually sure if she's feeling any effects of the pot, but regardless, it's a gorgeous night, the moon reflecting over the lake, the view above them a rare, open look at the sky not sliced by tree branches. They relax their eyes, trying not to focus on any one spot, waiting for shooting stars. No one talks much, save for the occasional "Oh, shit, was that one? D'y'all see that?" or "Ooh, right there - nah, false alarm, just a plane."

After awhile, Piper's slipped into a pleasant, almost meditative state that feels somewhere between sleeping and waking, when Alex touches a finger to the back of her hand and every nerve in Piper's body jolts awake. She doesn't move, just lies completely still, trying not to shiver as Alex's finger traces the length of her arm, drawing lazy, absent loops and patterns against her skin. She can barely feel Alex shift her position, but somehow their bare legs end up flush against each other, the edge of her foot leaning against the arch of Piper's.

Breath caught in her throat, Piper finally turns her head, chancing a glance at Alex. She isn't even looking, face still turned up to the sky with a serene expression, but after a few seconds she seems to feel the weight of Piper's stare. Her neck swivels, her gaze meeting Piper's from four inches away, and she slowly unfurls a maddening, knowing smile. The moonlight off the lake catches in her glass and for a second Piper can't see her eyes, but then her head moves out of the glare.

Not yet, the look on her face seems to say. But just you wait.


The next day, fate (or, rather, Red's assistant Norma, who actually makes the schedule) smiles upon Piper, and she ends up assigned to cover the pool with Alex.

They drop their backpacks on the poolside chairs and spend at least ten minutes making sure all fifteen of the kids are properly lathered in sunscreen and confirming that they all have to neon bracelets that means they've passed a swim test allowing them access to the deep end of the pool, before they strip off their own T-shirts and shorts.

Alex is wearing this black halter bathing suit that makes Piper wonder who the fuck thought the 'no bikinis for the counselors' rule made any difference at all. Alex reaches up, clipping her dark hair in a messy pile on top of her head. Piper's staring like a horny ninth grade and trying to decide how to offer sunscreen help without sounding like a character in a bad 80's movie, when Alex catches her looking. She smirks, eyes flashing smugly, but all she says is, "See this? The lesser known Camp Counselor's Tan." She gestures at herself, but they all have it: standard tanlines clearly marking shorts and T-shirts, but also, more distinctively, the rings of white lining the forearms from a plethora of crafted jewelry.

"Occupational hazard," Piper agrees with a grin, looking down at her own pile of bracelets sitting carefully on her towel.

Alex slips immediately into the water, but Piper sits on the side, dangling her legs in, watching Alex spend close to ten minutes letting the kids oohand ahhh over her tattoos. Most of them soon swim off for a game of Marco Polo, but Alex has two of her own campers in the group, both of who tread water near the edge with Piper and Alex, still trying to call their counselor out about her upcoming "wedding".

Alex seems to get a kick out of spinning elaborate, camp themed details. "We're doing it on the pier, obviously. Marshmallows and hot dogs for the reception. The ring's made out of paper mache, super gorgeous."

The girls exchange long-suffering looks. "It's not really happening, though."

"Of course it's really happening," Alex says mildly. She catches Piper's eye. "Ask Piper. She's the flower girl."

"It's true," Piper confirms, straight faced. "Alex is personally weaving me a crown of dandelions." That earns her a Look, and Piper has to bite back a smile.

"We know it's a fake wedding. We're not stupid."

"Of course you're not stupid," Alex agrees. "I'd never ask stupid people to be in my wedding."

"But also, we should never call people stupid," Piper adds hastily.

Alex rolls her eyes good-naturedly. "Next week on Missus Rogers' Neighborhood..."

The girls giggle. Piper's kicks her feet in the water, splashing Alex in the face. The girls giggle harder, and Alex scowls, removing her glasses with their freshly soaked lenses. "Oh, thanks a lot."

"You shouldn't be wearing your glasses in the pool," Piper says haughtily, extending her hand to take them.

"Do you want me to be able to see if one of the munchkins starts to drown?" Alex shoots back even as she hands them over, grinning when Piper props them on top of her own dry head.

"Hey Piper," one of Alex's campers asks. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Yeah Piper." Alex tilts her head, an innocent smile on her face. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

"I..." Damn her. Piper can feel the heat in her cheeks. "No, I don't have a boyfriend."

"Yes, you do!" The camper declares. "You're blushing." She looks at Alex for confirmation. "Isn't she blushing?"

"Piper, why are you blushing?" Alex demands, arching an eyebrow in a parody of curiosity.


Monitoring the rock wall, ropes course, or zip line are typically the easiest activity assignments, because there are already members of the Rec Staff - who work for the campground location, not the camp itself - manning each station. They're the ones actually trained on the harnesses and pulleys and safety measures, so the counselors really just have to watch and make sure no one wanders off.

So one Monday morning, Piper's okay leaving the surveillance at the ropes course to Cindy for just long enough to head over to the nearby zip line. Several of her girls were signed up for it for this block, and they'd talked of little else at breakfast. Knowing her own assignment was close by, Piper had promised to keep an eye out and watch them if she could.

She hasn't quite gotten there, though, when she hears someone full on ranting behind her. She turns around in time to see Tiffany Doggett, one of the Rec Staff members who usually works at the rock wall, leading - almost dragging - two campers by their arms. She instantly recognizes Mercy, one of her and Nicky's own campers. The other is a wispy little blonde whose slightly smudged but unmistakably winged eyeliner identifies her as a member of Alex and Poussey's cabin (Tessa? No, Tricia.). In contrast to Mercy, who looks utterly petrified, Tricia's spitting mad, eyes blazing with the righteous anger of a preteen.

Doggett's obviously worked herself into quite a tear. "...find what are supposed to be innocent children doing something that unnatural. So, yeah, I'd say you sure as hell are gonna get in trouble, gonna take you straight to your camp director - "

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey." Piper jogs over, stepping in front of them. "What's going on here?"

"Piper," Relieved, Mercy jerks away from Tiffany's grip and runs to stand behind Piper like she's escaping enemy territory, fixing her with a begging, save me look.

Doggett fixes the kids with a glare. "I found these two going at it behind the wall."

Piper makes a face. "Going at it?"

Tricia rolls her eyes and scowls. "Yo, we were just kissing. God."

"Oh, no, you don't get to do that. You don't get to take the Lord's name in vain two minutes after that unholy - "

"Hey." Piper's voice is a cleaver, cutting her off sharp and fast. "I'll handle this, thanks." She tugs Tricia away from Doggett, glancing between the kids. "Guys, were you out of bounds?"

"No," they chorus.

"Were you skipping an activity?"

"No."

"Then I don't see that there's any problem here," Piper declares firmly, eyeing Tiffany pointedly when she says it. "Who's the counselor at Rock Wall?"

"Suzanne and Maria."

"Okay, go make sure they know where you are, alright? We'll be heading to lunch soon."

They scamper away, relieved, and Piper swings a heated glare at Doggett. "You. Do not. Get to tell twelve year olds that they're doing somethingunnatural."

Doggett spread her hands, expression haughty. "Hey, I just call's 'em like I sees 'em."

"Well, luckily, how you sees 'em doesn't really fucking matter. To me, or to anyone else around here. This isn't Backwoods Jesus Camp, and it's also not your camp. You've got nothing to do with it, which means I don't have to care about your small minded opinions, and neither do our kids. So if I catch you talking to any of the campers about anything that isn't entirely about climbing a fucking wall, then you and I are going to have a big fucking problem."

The speech is delivered with slow, menacing calm, and by the end of it Piper's looming only a few inches from Tiffany's face. In response, she makes a scoffing sound and gives Piper the finger, but she walks off, muttering about dyke heathens as she goes.

Piper turns around and nearly walks into Alex, grinning at her with unabashed glee.

"Shit," she jumps, startled out of her adrenaline. "Did you just...?"

"Hear every word of that? Hell yeah." Alex laughs softly, this low, throaty sound that hits Piper somewhere in the center of her chest. "You've got quite the secret fucking temper. Who'd've thought?" She tilts her head, the smile easing into something softer. "We're all lucky you choose to channel it toward good instead of evil."

Piper crosses her arms over her chest, suddenly, inexplicably embarrassed. "Yeah, well. She was a bitch."

"Yeah, she's here every summer, too. Hates me. So I like to compliment her ass just to piss her off." Alex looks unmistakably smug about this strategy. "I saw she had Tricia so I came to see what was up...but you got there first and it was way too much fun listening to your verbal evisceration." She winks. She must not have any sporting activity assignments today, because she's wearing this dark grey V-neck and denim cut offs and it looks like she pulled half her hair into a ponytail and gave up on the rest.

For no reason at all, and probably inappropriate given the seriousness of what just happened, Piper starts blushing.

"I should, uh. Get back to the ropes course."

Alex clucks her tongue mockingly. "Neglecting your post."

Piper smiles crookedly at her and heads off. She's barely gotten ten feet away when Alex's voice stops her, "Hey, Pipes?"

Pipes. It slides out as though she's said it a hundred times before. No big deal. Piper turns.

"Seriously, that was nicely done." Alex gives her a short, sincere nod. "It actually...it probably means a lot for those two to hear you say it's not a problem."

Something is swelling her chest, threatening to burst, and Piper basks in Alex's praise like it's sunshine.


Session One slowly winds down, and the last week seems specifically designed to send the kids into an emotional frenzy, with a special activity every night: a giant cookout with fireworks by the lake; the camp wide photo on the lawn, everyone decked in their sky blue camp T-shirts (red for the Counselors and Staff) that's followed by T-shirt signing, the kids running around with Sharpies and scribbling out heartfelt, yearbook length messages on their bunkmates' backs; and, on the last night of camp, a Friday, a dance for the twelve through fourteen year olds (the tens and elevens get a pajama and pizza party).

For Piper and Nicky's kids, it's the first year they're allowed to attend the dance, and all of them came prepared with decidedly non-camp-like outfits. There's an extra hour of shower time after dinner, and they use every minute of it, lined up in front of the mirror, swapping make up and hair straighteners, sweetly, hilariously serious about the whole thing.

Piper moves among them, armed with a brush and bobby pins, fulfilling promises to a few of the girls to help style their hair. Nicky paces behind, complaining loudly, "Gotta say, ladies, I'm incredibly offended no one asked me for hair help."

The girls all giggle and exchange looks, but only Brook speaks up, "Well, look at your hair. It's giant."

Nicky wields a hairbrush menacingly. "It's humid in the woods, ya little brats."

They swap craft jewelry for silver and gold goods from Claire's, exchange T-shirts and flip flops for dresses and wedges, switch ponytails and braids for soft waves and up-dos. As chaperones, Piper and Nicky have to make an effort, too, simple dresses (Piper) or skirts (Nicky). Piper fishes out her makeup bag for the first time in weeks (Nicky, apparently, has been incapable of giving up her mascara, even in the outdoor heat of summer camp).

The dance starts at 8:30, and by 8:20 all nine of their girls are lined up by the door, like well dressed, expectant little soldiers, begging to walk down to the gym.

Nicky sighs dramatically, shaking her head in feigned disappointment. "You guys aren't allowed to leave tomorrow, I still have too much to teach you. Haven't you heard of making an entrance? Being fashionably late? We're supposed to be the cool ones here!"

"Nickyyyy," at least four of them whine.

"Piper, tell her to let us go."

"It's probably only fair we go as soon as possible," Piper agrees, then says in a deadpan, overly formal voice, "The party don't start until we walk in."

The girls let out a collective mix of laughter and groans, and Nicky rolls her eyes. "Jesus God, fine, we can go. Just don't let Chapman make anymore jokes."


The sprawling gymnasium has been transformed the best it could be, trying to disguise that it's been the daily site of intense dodgeball and basketball games. Luckily, most of the other cabins - well, the girls' ones, at least - were just as enthusiastic about arriving right on time, so they don't exactly beat the crowd. Flaca's volunteered herself as DJ, but she doesn't look happy with her playlist of ultra current, profanity free pop hits.

Most of the other counselors are there, minus those with the youngest kids, and as usual Piper's eyes don't settle until she spots Alex, already on the dance floor with her girls, wearing tight black jeans and a red sleeveless top. She senses Piper pretty quickly - she has a knack for doing that - and waves, flicking her eyebrows in amusement.

It's uncanny, the way middle school dances will always be middle school dances, even at camp, even six years removed from Piper's memories of them. The girls dance in tight knit circles, while the boys mostly line the perimeter of the dance floor, shoving each other and laughing, all empty bravado.

Piper alternates between goofing off with her campers and circling the dance floor, idly surveying. At one point, she's rounding a corner when she feels a tug on the skirt of her dress. She spins to find Alex grinning at her, nodding to the dance floor. For half a second, Piper's heart speeds up and she feels like a twelve year old being propositioned (she blames the middle school atmosphere - too easy to regress), but then she realizes what Alex is showing her: Mercy and Tricia, dancing close.

She smiles, sincerely. "Awww. Cute." They watch for a second, then Piper glances back at Alex. "Everyone being cool?"

"Yeah, I've kept an eye out." Alex smirks. "If anyone gives them shit I'll send 'em your way. Let you rough them up a little." She walks on to continue her own surveillance, crossing behind Piper to do it and pausing just behind her ear to whisper, "You look nice."


After an hour and a half or so, the counselors for the younger kids file into the gym; Nicky tells Piper that Gloria and Red usually relieve them for an hour or so, while the ten and eleven year olds are stretched out in the emptied arts and crafst room watching a movie, so they can stop by the dance.

Not ten minutes after they've arrived, Maria cups her hands around her mouth and yells over the sound of Call Me Maybe, "Yo, Flaca, how about you play something for us oldsters?"

Flaca gives a thumbs up, and abruptly switches to Lauryn Hill's Doo Wop! That Thing. The counselors let out a collective cheer at the familiar, cherished sounds of 90's hip hop, and Janae, Poussey, Taystee and Cindy lead the charge to the center of the dance floor. The campers back away slowly, no recognition in their face but looking perfectly prepared to be amused by their counselors' antics.

They dance in a tight knit knot, hamming it up for the kids, singing and dancing with equal enthusiasm. Piper feels a hip bump against hers, and she buts her eyes sideways to see Alex, dancing with a wide, unabashed grin. Piper grins back, inanely, suddenly feeling stupidly, deliriously happy, and she turns to face Alex completely, dancing close. Behind her, she hears teasing whoops, hears Poussey say something about white girls tryin' to throw down, and after a second, Lorna and Nicky wedge in between them. Lorna gives Piper an exaggerated wink, jokingly admonishingly, "Room for the holy spirit, girls, there are children watching."

The song ends, immediately replaced by The Smiths. Maritza and Maria lead a chorus of heavy, exaggerated booing, which somehow segues into a massive coughing fit, the coughs sounding suspiciously like the hacked syllables of "hipster!"

Flaca leans toward the mic, shrugging her shoulders. "Fine, if you want them all to grow up with bad taste, that's on all of you."

She cuts The Smiths off, and switches to The New Radicals, You Get What You Give. This is apparently closer to the counselors' collective heart, and it earns an enthusiastic cheer of instant recognition.

Wake up, kids, we've got the dreamer's disease...

This dancing feels more like the kind done at a concert, arms held aloft, rhythmic swaying quickly turning into full blown jumping. They start to beckon the campers back on the dance floor, and they come running, most obviously not recognizing the song but drawn to the infectious music anyway. Piper and Nicky's kids flock to them happily, and they end up in a circle of twelve year olds, shimmying and spinning and, at one point, moronically fist pumping. The campers, encouraged by their college age counselors' complete abandon, manage to drop that preteen self-consciousness and just have fun. Everywhere Piper looks there are huge smiles, right on the edge of laughter if not all the way over.

It feels like pure, utter joy.


The kids have two final activities in the morning, then lunch, and then two hours for packing, goodbyes and final cabin inspections before the parents start to show up. Piper and Nicky are pretty much confined to their cabin, checking under bunks and helping zip overstuffed suitcases. Most exhausting, though, is dealing with nine tearful twelve year olds, whose bond seems to have translated into a sort of domino effect of crying.

Piper's swept up in the sentimentality, sad to see the kids go, glad for their earnest promises to write her letters to let her know how it goes with that boy or this soccer team. When the last kid is finally signed out and gone, she and Nicky exchange a look.

"I'm actually pretty sad," Piper admits.

Nicky grins at her, clamping a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "We're empty nesters now, Chapman. All the way until tomorrow night. But cheer up. Tonight's one of the two best nights of the whole fucking summer."

"When's the other?"

"The night after the second batch of kids leave. Obviously."


After an hour spread across the gym filling out paperwork on each camper, Gloria and Red take the counselors out to dinner. It's strange to be outside the bubble of camp, and Piper ends up at the opposite end of the sprawling table from Alex, simply by virtue of the hastily put together carpools and their staggered arrival at the restaurant.

But it's still fun, refreshingly relaxing. With great amusement, Poussey tells her about Ben coming by the cabin before he left, braving Girl Territory to tell Alex goodbye, and assure her that he was coming back next summer and make sure their engagement was still on.

They get dropped off in front of the cabins, and Gloria paces in front of them delivering a perfunctory lecture about conducting themselves as respectably as they would if the kids were still watching, her lips twitching like she's fighting a skeptical sneer.


They gather in their usual circle on the grass , but for the first time, the boys, not having to worry about abandoning campers up the hill, come down and join them. They come armed with grocery bags full of liquor bottles and full cases of beer, not even bothering with the water bottle pretense.

Piper, sitting between Nicky and Janae on the grass, eyes the alcohol warily as drinks begin to make their way around the circle. "Shouldn't we be a little more subtle than this?"

"Relax, Chapman," Nicky says. "No one's coming around tonight, believe me. It's our one night without kids, they expect a certain amount of debauchery. It's tradition." She accepts a bottle of tequila from Maritza and takes a generous pull before offering it to Piper with a grin. "Besides, they can't possibly replace all of us by tomorrow night."

Convinced with that logic, Piper shrugs and accepts the proffered bottle. Her eyes dart sideways and inadvertently lock with Alex's; she's directly across the circle, and she grins when Piper catches her eye, lifting her beer bottle in a silent cheers. Piper bites back a smile that's suddenly threatening to take over her whole face, and raises her drink in return.

It takes less than twenty minutes to get everyone buzzed enough to agree to Spin the Bottle. There have only been two real couples to emerge from the summer so far: Daya and John Bennett, and Maria and the tall male counselor who hardly speaks, but whose eleven year old campers obviously adored him. Still, even the four of them easily agree to the game.

It's a fun, harmless idea in theory: they're young and drunk enough to enjoy the game, but old enough not to make a huge deal over kissing.

In theory.

But they haven't gone all halfway around the circle before Piper's squirming with discomfort and sympathy...and she hasn't even had to kiss anyone yet.

But it's the way Lorna spun to land on some counselor named Christopher - she'd looked ecstatic, he'd looked resigned, and Nicky had looked like a kid who lost a carnival game. It's the way Taystee and Poussey had such dissonant expressions on their face, both before and after the too quick kiss, the first time they'd ever seemed out of sync. It's the way Daya landed on the tall, loud counselor with the wispy beginnings of a mustache trying to manfully suggest he's further from adolescence than he actually is - he'd been far too enthusiastic with the kiss, pulling Daya back when she started to move away, and for a second Bennett had looked like he might genuinely vomit.

In general, Piper's rethinking the wisdom of choosing this game. But then Alex's turn comes, and Piper decides to reserve judgment on that.

Alex leans out to grab the empty tequila bottle in the center of the circle, craning her neck to narrow her gaze across the circle. It's getting hard to tell in the dark, but Piper's pretty sure Alex winks at her. Alex gives the bottle a good spin, and hope makes Piper's blood run faster as she silently wings a prayer to wind resistance or velocity or fate or whatever goddamn force controls where that bottle stops.

It stops on Nicky. Just beside her, not two inches difference, but still unmistakably Nicky, who gives Alex a leering grin and says, "Oh, yeah, you and me, Vause."

They meet in the center of the circle and kiss enough to draw the appreciative whoops and catcalls of the males in the crowd (not, to be fair, that it takes much), and they clearly don't hate it, don't mind it at all, and Piper hates this, hates it, but for some reason she can't make herself look away, can only stare and feel just like she did that day she'd inhaled lake water mistakenly into her lungs.

Soon Nicky slouches back to her spot beside Piper on the grass, but Piper doesn't look at her. She feigns extreme interest in Flaca's spin, watches as she lands on Maritza. They kiss the way just friends do, barely able to keep it up for more than a few seconds before dissolving into giggles.

Alex and Nicky hadn't kissed like that. Alex and Nicky hadn't giggled.

Piper gets her first participation in the game when Suzanne's spin lands on her. She hears Nicky stifle a laugh, and doesn't even dignify her with a look, just moves gamely to meet Suzanne in the middle. She has to be the one to end the kiss, and she does it fairly quickly. Piper can't help but glance over; Alex is laughing at her, and that pisses her off because maybe that says it all: Piper wanted to scream watching her kiss someone else. Alex thinks it's fucking hilarious.

It's getting close to their section of the circle, and soon it's Nicky's turn, just one away from Piper's. Nicky spins with two hands, unnecessary force.

It fucking lands on fucking Alex. Fucking again.

Before they even do anything there are cheers. Someone, some boy, yells out, "Gotta up the ante the second time! That's the rule!"

Piper's clenching her teeth together so hard her jaw aches. This time she doesn't watch, but it's enough just to know it's happening, just to hear how enthusiastic the reaction is from the crowd, how long it goes on. She starts thinking that maybe Alex wasn't looking at her all night (all week, all month), that she'd made a mistake...after all, it's dark and she's drunk and Nicky's been right beside her. She starts thinking maybe Nicky's interest in Lorna is just for fun, that whatever unspoken Thing she's thought she felt between her and Alex all summer was all in her head.

Her stupid, naive, apparently somewhat gay, head.

She's thinking so hard she doesn't notice that Nicky's back in her spot until someone says, "Hey, Piper, it's your go."

"Huh? Oh..." Everyone's watching her expectantly. "Pass."

It just slips out, determinedly casual, but she's assaulted with boo's anyway. Beside her, Nicky thunks her on the arm. "Don't be the downer, Chapman, just spin the fucking thing."

"Yeah, Pipes." Alex's voice, pitched with a low note almost like a dare, from across the circle. This time she's definitely, no question, looking at Piper. "Take your chances."

Almost on autopilot, Piper reaches for the bottle and spins.

Wind resistance or velocity or fate or whatever the fuck finally tips in her favor.

Piper's eyes track straight from the mouth of the bottle to look at Alex. Her lips are curled in a tiny, smug smirk. Like she somehow knew this would happen. Piper eases toward the center of the circle, waiting, but Alex doesn't move to meet her. Just arches an eyebrow, licks her lips, and crooks a beckoning finger in Piper's direction.

God damn.

There's a low chorus of oooh's at the gesture, but as Piper continues the full diameter of the circle, the others are already fading into the background. They're hazy peripheral vision, unimportant, unseen. Alex is a finish line. Alex is what matters.

Piper ends up on her knees between Alex's sprawled legs, and there's a heartbeat of a pause before they kiss when Alex just looks at her, eyes gleaming in a knowing sort of way, her smile seeming to say I told you so.

Then she takes Piper's face in her hands. Her mouth is hot and wanting as it covers Piper's, and God, Alex kisses like a sweet devouring. Piper's hands are frantic, moving from hair to face to neck then skimming low, gripping the front of Alex's shirt, holding on, trying to stay steady. There are noises, the audience is reacting, but who cares, they're still background, still white static and nothing that matters.

When they finally pull away, Piper's almost forgotten why and how this happened, until Alex laughs throatily and whispers, "Too bad it's not Seven Minutes in Heaven, huh?"

Next to Alex, Poussey snorts and mutters under her breath, "Wasn't far off."

When Piper returns, dazed, to her original place in the circle, Nicky claps a hand on her shoulder. "How you doin' there, champ?"

Piper slides a glance at her bunkmate. Nicky looks really fucking amused. Way too amused to be secretly hooking up with, or even just pining for, Alex.

Running her tongue slowly over her numb, swollen lips, Piper meets Alex's gaze across the circle. She tips a smile in Piper's direction, practically shooting sparks.

It's possible Piper sometimes overthinks things.


Some people want to play another round, but there's more dissent than support, and Piper's more than happy to quit while she's ahead (there's technically no way to really win Spin the Bottle, but. She totally won Spin the Bottle). The whole group, with what's left of the alcohol in tow, stumbles down to the lake and gathers around the fire pits. Someone gets a campfire going, and some forward thinking individual who thought to brought S'more supplies starts passing them out. Piper sits next to Nicky on one of the low to the ground benches, feeling irrationally guilty for her admittedly silent bitterness toward her bunkmate during the game, and can't contain her delighted smile when Alex comes to sit in front of them, leaning back against Piper's legs. Piper rests her forearms on Alex's shoulder's, playing absently with her hair, and Nicky rolls her eyes at them but not like she really minds.

It's fun around the campfire, the conversation loud and laughing and drunk, but Piper's just content to let the sense of good will wash over her, let the conversation work its way into a pleasant buzzing of noise, with her just quiet and enjoying to weight of Alex against her shins, the softness of her hair wound around Piper's fingers.

Alex is quiet, never even turning around to talk. She accepts a pulled apart wire hanger with marshmallows lined on the end, holds it over the flames until the outside is on fire. She carefully pulls one off, then bends the hanger carefully back over her shoulder, offering one to Piper. She does the same with whatever liquor is passed their way, and Piper drinks whatever Alex puts into her hands. It makes this easier, makes her feel less crazy for how comfortable she feels. Alex plays with her hands sometimes, both their fingers marshmallow sticky.

Piper rests her chin on the top of Alex's head and stares into the fire, eyes open but unfocused. She has no idea how long it's been when Poussey, from across the circle, yells, "Hey, Alex." Piper snaps to attention, attention triggered just by her name, in time to sees Poussey covertly dangling a bag of weed between her knees.

Alex nods, then swivels around, leaning on Piper's thighs. "I'm gonna go smoke for a few minutes. Want to come?"

Piper considers it, mostly because having her hands out of range of Alex isn't particularly appealing, but eventually she shakes her head. Right now she's a pleasant kind of dizzy, the kind that feels as much like happiness as inebriation, but she's worried if she actually stands up that might change.

Alex nods. "Back soon."

She and Poussey head off to the edge of the woods. Piper watches her retreat, and then turns to the side to say something to Nicky before noticing for the first time the bench beside her is vacant.

Taking in her surroundings for the first time in awhile, Piper looks around the circle; about half the counselors seem to be engaged in a game of Never Have I Ever. There are a few couples, stretched over benches or even just the ground, making out furiously.

Including Nicky and Lorna, who are perched on one of the higher benches, Lorna straddling Nicky's lap. Piper has no idea how that developed within the last hour, but a smile splits her face, for once genuinely and unselfishly happy for them.

With her own bench to herself now, Piper stretches out across it, flat on her back, staring dreamily up at the stars, living off that kiss.

She may have drifted off to sleep when she hears Nicky yell at her, "Chapman! Get up, get your ass in the lake."

"Hmmm?" Piper jerks into alertness, sitting up to fast. It takes her a second to take in the scene around her. Piles of clothes are being shed and stacked on benches. In the distance, she can already hear squeals and splashes. She looks around for Alex without success.

Nicky's standing over her in a bra and her shorts, T-shirt balled in her hands, her lips swollen and smeared with red lipstick and triumph. "Skinny dipping!"

Piper averts her eyes automatically, not only from Nicky but from everyone shedding layers around her. "Drunken swimming? Are you serious?"

"As a fuckin' heart attack. It's tradition!"

"I'm starting to think that's just what you say to convince me to do things."

"Yeah, Chapman, you caught me," Nicky rolls her eyes. "All summer's been leading to this...me getting your goddamn clothes off."

"Niiiiichols!" Lorna's singsong voice floats from somewhere in the direction of the lake.

Nicky grins. "That's my cue."

Piper rubs her eyes. The fire pit area is emptying out, and she turns toward the lake, surveying her options. It's dark, the moon only a sliver, the fire burned out, and all she can see are silhouettes leaping off the peir, heads and shoulders bobbing in the water. As she watches, Nicky high kicks her shorts away from her ankle, letting them land somewhere in the grass. She pauses at the pier next to Lorna, presumably shedding her underwear, then the two of them go leaping off the edge.

For the first time, she notices a pile of clothes at the end of her bench, just next to her feet: a V-neck, denim shorts and, perched carefully on top, black glasses.

Piper gets somewhat shakily to her feet, muttering curses under her breath but suddenly unable to stop smiling, and pulls her shirt off, unbuttons her shorts and lets them drop, and finally, because fuck it, why wait, shedding her bra and underwear.

Naked, laughing, some dim sober corner of her brain marveling at the fact that she's even doing this, Piper sprints toward the pier, like a little kid running down a hill, momentum without control. Halfway there she realizes she's still in flip flops - no underwear, but yes shoes - and kicks them off in opposite directions, nearly falling when she discards the left one. The pier is littered with bras and boxers and thongs, it's a funny sight, too bad they won't still be here in the daylight, someone should really take a photograph. Piper gets to the edge, yells fuck for no apparent reason, and aims at one of the few empty spots in the water.

She submerges, lake water thrumming around her ears, instantly swallowing the sounds of laughter and yelps. The water is too warm to be sobering, which is an immediate relief, temperature wise, but probably not great in terms of safety. Pipers feet hit the sandy, muddy bottom and she propels herself back to the surface.

It's chaos up there, splashes and yelling and too many conversations to follow. Piper feels good, light and unencumbered, but it also feels like the slosh of alcohol around her brain is working directly against the shifting lake water. She swims closer to the shore, until she's only shoulder deep in the water and can plant her feet more firmly on the bottom.

She feels instantly safer, more steady. She can pick out distinct pockets of activity now. At least eight or nine voices are participating in a loud, drunken rendition of Bitch by Meredith Brooks. She can see a circle of people shaped shadows who have, unwisely, brought beer into the lake with them. Closer to the shore or pier are a smattering of couples, tangled together, more still and silent than the groups.

Piper stays where she is for five, ten, fifteen minutes, letting it all drift over her, occasionally ducking under the water, liking the suddenness of the silence, the warped, wavering view of the sky through a sheen of water. She's standing again, neck deep in the water, when a hand closes around her ankle and Piper screams.

Alex rockets to the surface in front of her, laughing and shimmering. "Thank God," she says. "That was gonna be really fucking awkward if that wasn't you." She points to her face, vision unassisted. "It's been a very difficult search. This is hard-won."

"And did you go through it all just to scare me half to death?"

Her smile opening up completely, Alex moves a little closer, the pitch of her voice dropping. "Not exactly."

Like she's swept by some nonexistent current, she moves against Piper, their legs bracketing under the water, Alex's hands slowly climbing the ladder of Piper's ribcage, climbing up and up and up and moving over to her bare breasts. She should probably be self-conscious, nervous, but she isn't, not at all, it's like whatever's happening below the water doesn't count, can't be anything but okay, can't possibly be too fast. Alex tilts her head down, her eyes hooded and glowing, lantern eyes, and for the first time Piper's brain, inebriated it may be, manages to articulate what it is she's been reading in Alex's gaze all summer: promises.

Promises being at last fulfilled as their lips find each other, eager and exploring. Alex tastes like weed and marshmallows and fire, slightly singed at the edges. Piper thinks of that feeling at the dance, the unencumbered joy of the music and the dancing, but that had nothing on this, this is like she's swallowed pure euphoria, like stars could be falling into the lake around them and oh God she's waxing lyrical, must be drunker than she thought, but who cares when this feels so damn good.

A thrill sings its way up Piper's spine as she realizes the summer's only halfway over, that she can still have four miraculous weeks of this.


She wakes up Sunday morning with a hangover - a serious business hangover, not like the summer's other 'remedied with a shower and/or interaction with children' hangovers - and no immediate memory of how she got back to her cabin, to find Nicky haphazardly stuffing all her clothes into duffel bags.

"What are you doing?" Piper mumbles, keeping half of her face pressed against the pillow.

Nicky glances over and grins. "Well, good fuckin' morning sunshine." She zips the duffel she's holding and tosses it unceremoniously in a pile by the doorway. "It's been real, Chapman, but our beautiful partnership is coming to an end. I'm moving out."

"Wait, what?" More awake now, Piper sits, blinking at Nicky in confusion. "Aren't you staying?"

"Course I'm staying. Why would I ever leave this paradise? It's the mid-summer partner swap."

"Oh. I didn't know we did that."

"It's not exactly required. But as long as we tell them who's with who by the time the miniatures get here tonight, the powers that be don't give a shit."

"So..." Piper frowns, getting the picture. "You just...wanted to change partners?"

Nicky glances over and laughs at her. "Jesus, Chapman, you don't have to pout at me over it. It's not personal...I'm moving in with Morello."

"Ooooh. Got it." Piper grins, feeling instantly better, and tries to remember who Lorna's been paired with. "So...is Daya moving in?"

"Nah, Daya wants to be in Oak."

"Why Oak?"

"Not sure. It's the cabin on the end, I guess...she probably wants to shorten Bennett's nightly sprint of shame back into Testosterone Territory."

"So who's leaving Oak?"

"Taystee."

"So Taystee's coming here?"

Nicky sighs, finally pausing in her packing to give Piper a pitying look. "You're so close, Chapman. One more try." When Piper just stares at her blankly, Nicky smirks. "Taystee and Poussey wanna work together. So..." She spins her hand in a catch up faster sort of gesture.

"So..." Piper stops talking abruptly, finally getting it. Heat floods her cheeks, eyes darting almost instinctively to the bed Nicky's been occupying for the past four weeks.

Nicky's laughing at her again. "There ya go. You and Vause. Goddamn dream team."

"Is, uh...is this all because of last night?"

"No way, moron. You think the mid-summer partner swap is built in a day? We've been planning this shit for the past week." She winks. "Somehow I don't think you'll miss me."


A/N: Session Two will be posted eventually. Love to hear what you think!