One week.

One entire week has passed since the day Piper got to the foster home, and her life have been everything but normal.

Where can I even begin? Well, for starters, the fact that living here was nothing she'd ever thought she'd have to face, she had been on stand-by, just sleeping, showering, studying, eating, drifting off and crying. And repeat. Every single day.

At least I get to see Cal today. That little fucker must be having a good time, I know him, he probably has loads of friends by now. And I…

I've got the three most awful roommates.

In reality, she wasn't even sure what she thought or how she felt about the three girls. They were what anyone would describe as unbelievable. The worst thing was that she couldn't even exactly point out if the adjective had a good or a bad connotation. Two of them where the same age as Piper and the other one was 17.

To explain a little the situation, there was this girl, the one she bumped into the first day she arrived here. She was tall, with perfect pearly skin, jet-black hair and heavy rimmed glasses. (And don't forget to mention, she was older and had one large tattoo on her right arm.)Which gave her that air of mysticism and plain mystery. She was what one could describe exactly as lazy, rebellious, anxiety-ridden, depressed, deep, gay teen. Her name, she later learnt, was Alex. And this Alex girl made sure every single second that Piper felt uncomfortable around her, teasing, bullying, making fun of her, hell, even flirting with her, which made Piper cringe every time. She was too confident, always with a cocky smirk and a trademark raised eyebrow.

Then, there was the tiny, thin, big-headed Tiffany, she had crooked teeth and long dark-brown hair. She wasn't half bad, at least she was nice to Piper, but she had serious issues with boys, and funny ideas about simple things, she seemed fairly neglected by her parents, and by the way she talked about them, Piper had no doubt that they were only looking for the first chance they got to get rid of her. Over the last few days, she noticed how Tiffany hated Alex and the other roommate, because of their sexual preferences and she always said that Alex had a crush on her and that she was sickened to have to share a room with her.

And the last girl, was quite strange, she had a funny accent, short brown hair and perfect white teeth. She was always reserved, didn't talk much to anyone. She had barely crossed a word or two with Piper (and if she was being honest, she thought this girl was a boy at a first glance), until she presented herself, a little bit too formally for someone her age. Her name was Stella and she was cocky, narcissistic and so full of herself, but nevertheless mannerly and/or polite.

The bedroom was a little too tight for the four of them, but they managed to not fight every hour or so. There were two bunk beds, on the left side of the room slept Tiffany on top and Piper below her, and on the right side there was Stella on top and Alex below her. The room was painted an awful tone of olive green, with the paint falling off the edges. It had a large wardrobe occupying the whole wall in front of the bunks, and obviously it was divided in four equal portions.

Then, just beside every bunk there was a rather old and worn out desk with a couple of books and a lamp each. They were four chairs, so they had their own chair but had to share the desk.

Piper was thankful that she was "paired" with Tiffany because she was the one that seemed "normal". Always talking about how fucked up boys were and how the lesbians were ruining the world and she truly believed that the lesbians were the cause of the boys being assholes.

Piper, on the other hand, have never had the opportunity to think about "gay or lesbian", she knew those terms existed, because she saw them on her sex ed class, but she never saw a real person being any of those things, but she really didn't care, except when it was about Alex, and that was because she always made sure Piper lived a hell and she loved flirting and every time Piper would turn around and watch her, Alex was gazing exactly where she was.


Later, that Saturday, all the boys and the girls were allowed to hang out together on the grounds of the foster home. So Piper immediately went looking for Cal, and when she found him, he was leaning closely with two other boys and they were looking rather guilty and suspicious, holding something in between them and talking animatedly.

When Cal noticed her sister coming to where he was, he let go what he had in her hands and gasped.

"Oh my god, Cal!" the blonde said starting to get annoyed.

"Hello, sis!" Cal said, trying to take her away of the other boys, so she wasn't able to look at what he just let go, but it was too late, Piper saw it.

There, on the ground, below a boy's foot laid a freshly rolled joint. So, naturally, Piper being older, felt the need to protect her brother and started scowling at him.

"You give me that!" she said to the scrawny boy who looked at her with terror in his eyes and stepped away, running for his life. Piper took the joint and put it in her pocket, motioning to the other boy to go away, and he did.

"What do you think you're doing, Cal? If they catch you with this, there's no chance of us going back to the house!" she said, sadness evident in her voice.

"Do you really care, Pipe? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd rather be at home than here but… I feel like it is liberating in a way. And besides… they haven't even come to visit! Not a single time!" Cal said, trying to make his sister feel a little bit better.

"I care, Cal" she said caressing his brother's cheek, to which he just rolled his eyes and told her that she was too sensitive.

"Well, perhaps I am Cal, but you have no idea what I've been through these days!" she let out a long, loud sigh, feeling defeated.

"What happened, sis?" the plump boy said with concern in his little eyes.

"My roommates" she said, not feeling in the mood to elaborate further.

"Oh, bummer. Mine are totally cool, I'm the youngest, but none of them have ever smoked a joint!" he said a little too excited.

Piper just rolled her eyes, but tried to suppress a grin that was forming in her lips.

Cal just looked at her with beaming eyes and the blonde couldn't help the full smile now tugging at her lips.

"I just worry about you, you know? But I'm so happy to see you, and to know that you're doing a lot better than I am" she said sincerely.

"Don't worry sis, just try not to be too uptight, and try to enjoy being around other people, and you'll see that everything feels better" he said, right before he turned around and started walking to his building because they had run out of time, and must return for dinner.


Piper felt a lot chipper after meeting her brother, so she went to the cafeteria whistling contentedly.

She went to get her tray of food and was walking to the same table she had been eating every day since she arrived, when suddenly, she was startled when an aussie accent spoke to her:

"Hey girl, do you want to sit here? I've noticed you're always there but you don't talk to anyone" she said pointing at the table on the far left corner, where Tiffany was sitting with two other girls.

Piper pondered for a second, because this girl although gay had never hit on her and was rather pleasant to be around, so she remembered "…just try not to be too uptight, and try to enjoy being around other people…" and she nodded as a small smiled appeared on her face.

After the first uncomfortable minutes, they finally started talking, just about trivialities and how they came to be here, laughing and having a good time. Piper realized Stella was really nice and she wondered if she had finally had found a friend (because Tiffany was not her friend, she just co-existed with the smaller girl). And she realy found herself enjoying this girl's company.


A few tables away from Piper, there was Alex frowning and just trying to act as if nothing had happened. She was sitting with her friends (it was like this was the table for gay people, or so everyone thought). There was Nicky, a girl with really wild, red-blonde hair, who was Alex's best friend since before Litchfield foster home.

That was simple to explain, they were neighbors since they were little and while Alex lived with her mother who really took care of her, Nicky's parents were a total chaos and were never home, they abused their little girl, beat her every other day and neglected her, so she was always hanging out at Alex's house. That was until Alex's mom passed away.

In front of Nicky, sat Black, a total butch, with super short hair and big blue eyes. She had always been hot and cold with the other girls, always going along with the people that had the better deals for her (clothes, books, cigarettes, you name it), and beside her was little Lorna Morello, the shorter girl of them all, with curly brown hair and red lips. No one was sure if she was indeed lesbian, but they figured she was because she hung out with them (and there were always the rumors that she was Nicky's girlfriend).

They were talking animatedly, until Alex felt annoyed and excused herself from the table. She went to the bathroom and her mind was racing because Piper went and sat with fucking Stella. And that bitch was a traitorous rat.

Flashback

Piper and Tiffany were busy making homework (or rather fighting because Piper was right about what she was doing and Tiffany insisted she was wrong). Alex had been watching the blonde since the moment they collided, because she found her really really gorgeous. She was the type of girl that Alex always wanted, thin, perfect skin, long blonde hair, mesmerizing blue eyes, cute dimples that formed on her cheeks when she smiled... if she smiled ('cause she rarely did), and Alex just knew that she had a crush.

Stella was silently observing everything, like she always did. Just witnessing everything and keeping her mouth shut, low-profile she'd say. And she noticed the stupid grin Alex had and how she was practically drooling while looking at the newbie, so she stood up from her bunk and motioned to Alex to go out of the room.

Alex followed her and once they were outside the room, Stella started walking somewhere, so Alex kept following her. After a few minutes, they were outside, in the back of the building, in a secluded area, where Stella took out a cigar from her jean's pocket and lit it, offering it to Alex after a long drag.

Alex happily complied and after dragging the smoke out of her lungs she asked:

"What's up Dingo? Everything okay?" she said amicably, as they were not exactly best friends but they got along pretty good.

"Shut up, Vause. I've noticed how you look at that little cutie." Stella said gauging Alex's reaction.

"Shit! I know I'm being too obvious, so that's why I tease her and flirt with her on purpose, so she thinks it is all a joke." she said, blushing furiously.

"Yeah, she thinks that you hate her and that you want to make her life a living hell." Stella said laughing.

"Did she say that?" the jet-black haired girl almost screamed.

"No, dumbass, I haven't had a chance to really talk to her, but I can tell, I've been watching her, so you know..."

"Do you like her too?" Alex said with a pang of worry on her chest.

"Nah, don't worry. I just noticed that you were being too stupid there, so I had to get you out of there so she won't notice" Stella said nonchalantly.

"Thanks, man. Really I appreciate it. I suppose you can be a good friend"

"Don't be such a girl, Vause, but thank you."


A/N: *Hides behind a tree* Don't hate me, please.

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