Do not own Orange Is the New Black or any of the characters.

So I didn't attend on adding to this story, but I couldn't get sixteen year old Alex out of my head really.

This chapter is very short.

Enjoy!

March 1996

Vause Household

Sunday Morning

"Allie!" greeted Suzanne Vause warmly to her daughter as she came into the kitchen, "You're up early!"

Alex just shrugged her shoulders in response as she shuffled into the room and made her way over to the coffee machine. She was extremely groggy at the moment and could never make proper words into sentences without having her coffee first.

"I just made a fresh pot," explained Suzy as she looked up briefly from the newspaper she was reading and over at Alex.

Alex again just mumbled something in response as she reached for the pot and pulled down a clean mug from the cupboard. She found her eyes closing slightly as she felt out for the coffee machine. She reopened them just in time before her hand came into direct contact with the hot glass of the side of it. A second later, her fingers closed around the handle of the pot and filled her mug.

She inhaled the sweet aroma of the coffee before she put the pot back. As she brought the now full mug to her lips, she turned around to look back at her mother.

Suzy smiled warmly at her daughter as she turned the page of the newspaper.

The teenager smiled back before making her way over to the kitchen table and took the empty seat across from her mother.

Normally, Alex would had slept in on Sunday, sleeping off her hang-over from the party last night. However, there had been no party from last night for her this weekend. She had spend her Saturday like she had spent her Friday night, studying for that damn biology test. Luckily though Eric had been able to help her out and understand her notes a little better. So she wasn't completely lost of the subject matter like she had been before. But she wouldn't say she was a genius now either. She wasn't looking to ace the test like she knew some people in her class were.

Just to pass it, that was all she wanted.

She took another large sip from her mug, savouring the bitterness of the black coffee on her tongue before swallowing. The kitchen was filled with the comforting noises that could only be heard on a Sunday morning in the Vause household, it seemed with the gentle ruffling of the newspaper as her mother turned a page and the soft background noise of jazz music playing from the digital radio above the fridge.

A sense of joy filled Alex's heart as she continued to sit there at the green laminate kitchen table and drank her coffee. As lame as it sounded, she really did live for these little moments on Sunday mornings. Any other day of the week , she would be waking up to a silent and empty house, unless it was a holiday or her birthday. Her mother was usually up and out of the house long before Alex even had to get up for school during the week.

Unlike, other kids her age, Alex liked to spend time with her mom. She didn't get to see her as often as she would like too. Sunday was their day though. Sometimes they wouldn't do anything but just chill at home and others they would go to the mall or the movies. But whatever they did, she always enjoyed it. Alex would never admit it, if you asked her who her best friend in the world was, she would always say Michelle. But secretly, it wasn't Michelle who she considered her best friend.

It was her mom.

Suzy had been there for her all her life. She knew it hadn't always been easy for her mom, raising her by herself at such a young age, but she had. And for that Alex would always be grateful for.

And she planned to pay back her mom one day for all that she had done for her. She was going to buy her mom a new house one that wasn't falling apart like this one currently was. She was going to buy her mom one of those mansions that the celebrities in Hollywood lived in. She was going to pay all of her mom's debt off and such so that her mom would never have to work another fucking day in her lifetime. She was going to spoil her mom, she thought. Once she had the money to do so of course.

But she had to fucking graduate high school first, she thought before she could do any of that stuff. And the only way she was going to graduate was if she passed this biology test that she had on Monday.

Alex couldn't help but sigh as she thought back to that damn test. She never really got nervous about test and such but for some reason she was nervous about this one. She just really didn't want to have to take summer school this year. Her summer was suppose to be about doing nothing and working of course. But other than that, nothing else. Summer wasn't meant for school. She didn't get how some kids could take summer school just to get a head start for the next school year. She didn't see the fucking point. Being forced to go to school eight months of the year was already fucking hard as it was.

Why would someone want to make it even harder on themselves by taking summer school?

That was just fucking stupid!

Alex rubbed her eye briefly as she placed her mug down onto the table and reached out for the box of cereal in the middle of the table.

"Lucky Charms?! Really Ma?" she asked with a smile on her face as she gestured to the box.

"What?" replied back Suzy as she looked up from the article she had been reading, "They were on sale this week! Plus you use to beg me every time I took you to the fucking grocery store for them when you were a kid!"

Alex couldn't help but grin sheepishly at this. She had done that she remembered clearly. Lucky Charms had been her favourite cereal growing and probably still was, she thought as she began to eat directly from the box.

"Didn't you always say it was filled with sugar and other crap?" she asked her mom with a mouthful of marshmallows in her mouth. They were the best part, she thought.

"Yeah and it's probably still fucking is! Probably even more now...but again it was on sale," explained Suzy as she looked over at her daughter for a second longer before returning back to her newspaper.

Alex couldn't help, but laugh in reply to this.

"And Allie?"

"Yeah?" replied Alex as she once again reached into the box of cereal.

"Use a fucking bowl!" spoke Suzy as she glanced up briefly at her daughter and met her eye. "I raised you better than that." Beneath her serious tone was a hint of amusement. But she really had raised her daughter better than to eat cereal directly from the box.

"Yea...yea...yea..." replied Alex as she pulled her hand out of the box and rose to her feet to get a bowl.

Thanks for reading and leave a review if you would be interested in reading more. At the moment I am just writing this for my own creative outlet and enjoyment.

Julie