A/N: Okay, so here goes the first official chapter. Let me know what you think!
Chapter One: Creepy Fetishes About Women Behind Bars
I picked at my food, which was what looked like eggs, a sad piece of toast and a hunk of cold, thick oatmeal. I sipped at my instant coffee, not caring I was burning my tongue as it was going down. I didn't exactly regret the things that I'd done, but I couldn't help the shitty feeling that enveloped me as I realized what day it was.
It was March 23, my twenty-first birthday. While other girls were preparing for a night of epic partying with shots and table dancing and cute outfits, I was an androgynous tan blob in the midst of a bunch of criminals, drinking my shit coffee while sitting next to a girl with an octopus tattoo on her neck.
Don't get me wrong, I was a criminal too. I fully owned up to what I had done, but I'd like to think my indiscretion was a little more moral that some of the other ladies here.
My cousin Meredith was my best friend. She came to visit me at the small liberal arts college I attended in Pennsylvania about a year and a half ago. She was eighteen at the time and I had just turned twenty, and against my better judgment, she begged me to take her to a "college" party.
She was so thrilled at the thought of being around cool college kids, and being around hot college guys that I couldn't say no to her. The party was fun and I refrained from drinking too much, knowing I had to watch Meredith, but somehow even with my watchful gaze she eluded me.
After searching the Frat house high and low, I finally found her in the room of the Frat's president, Nathan Taurus. At first, I wasn't sure what was going on until I heard her sniffling and meekly telling him to stop.
It's hard to win a rape case when the defendant's lawyer is smearing your name by talking about how much alcohol you had to drink that night. Meredith didn't have enough to black out or anything, but she was drunk, and so was Nathan.
It's even harder to win a rape case when the defendant's daddy was a rich lawyer himself. Nathan was never convicted, and the case never even went to a full trial. Apparently there wasn't enough physical evidence to rule out that what happened between Meredith and Nathan was consensual.
It was unfortunate that I had chosen so early into the rape to beat Nathan shitless with the baseball bat I found on the floor near his desk.
But Nathan's rich lawyer daddy did decide to press charges against me for assault in the third degree, which is why I'm here. I can't say I regret it though. Nathan had to have reconstructive surgery on his nose and face after I was done with him, and I also heard that he missed a whole season of baseball because I broke several of his ribs.
Kind of makes the year I had to spend at St. Vlad's worth it. Almost. It's what I deserve after bringing Meredith to that party and letting her out of my sight. If I had just watched her more carefully, just told her no from the start, she wouldn't be scarred for life, and I wouldn't have the label of convicted felon hovering over my back for the rest of my life.
"Cheer up babe, you're officially legal!" says my good friend Mia Rinaldi.
I look over at her, scanning her crazy blonde curls and bright blue eyes, and good-naturedly give her the finger.
Mia was a crazy skilled computer hacker, but that wasn't what landed her in here. Well, sort of. Mia was a genius with computers and could access information about anyone and anything. She was also a shopaholic, and spending other people's money is way easier than spending your own. She made one tiny mistake and landed herself in here for six years for credit card fraud. She was twenty-three and had already served four years of her sentence.
"I guess I am, huh? Maybe I could get Tasha to trade me some of her hooch tonight so we can celebrate," I say, laughing.
"Hells yeah!" Mia says, pumping her fist.
"Please, Rose, the last time we tried that I was sick for days," Lissa groans, making a disgusted face, while pushing her eggs around her plate.
"One shot, Liss. It's my birthday. Pleeeease?" I beg her.
"Fine fine. I hate that look you give me, you know I can't resist," she says as she rolls her eyes.
"So how does it feel to be twenty-one, Rose?" says another member of our little group, Sydney Sage. Sydney was twenty-two and was in for five years for arson. She was always fascinated with fire, and liked setting smalls ones and putting them out just to 'watch the light dance'. One day, at her all girl's private school, the small fire she started in the bathroom had gotten out of hand and almost burnt down half the school, leaving several girls with second degree burns and one girl in the hospital in a coma for several days from smoke inhalation.
She had never meant to hurt anyone. She was only seventeen when the incident happened, but they decided to try her as an adult since she had injured several other girls pretty severely.
"It feels the same as yesterday when I was twenty, Sage," I joke.
"Well, Happy Birthday either way," she says and smiles at me. Sydney was a sweet girl at heart and I truly believed when she said she never meant to hurt those girls. Sydney had shoulder-length straight ashy blonde hair and beautiful, golden brown eyes. I was glad I had met her, and I was glad that in the several years she had been here prison hadn't changed her much.
Just then, I see Jill approach with her tray. Jill Mastrano was the youngest of our group of youngsters, only being eighteen. She was still brand new here, only two months into her sentence. She had shaped up since she first got here, but sometimes she was still shaken and nervous. I could see her wild brown curls bouncing as she set her tray down, her green eyes scanning our table.
We had pulled Jill under our collective wing when she arrived those weeks ago, and became even more protective when we realized Lissa was friends with Jill's cousin Sonya.
The way things work around here, everyone sort of bands together in little tribes or cliques. It helps when you have friends in here and people to back you up if things get tough. Most cliques here are formed somewhat around race, but a lot of the women here were older adults, late twenties and beyond.
So race didn't really apply to our little group, as we banded together purely because we were all younger girls. I was our group's ethnic flair, being half Turkish half Scottish. Lissa liked to joke that I looked like a desert princess.
When I first arrived here, I was assigned to my bunk with Lissa, whose previous roommate Elena was moved over to the maximum-security prison. As Lissa had told me, Elena was in for a long long time for chopping off her husband's genitals with an axe. Apparently. Just before I arrived, she had stabbed another inmate in the eye with her dinner fork just because the bitch stole her pudding cup. Most of the women in here aren't particularly violent, but there are always the exceptions.
But, as fate would have it, that left Lissa without a roommate and me in need of a bunk. When Lissa and me first started talking, I hated her. She was a spoiled rich princess who was stupid enough to get caught for whatever she was doing, and apparently it had been one time too many. Not even her rich daddy could get her out of her sentence.
I saw her as a female form of Nathan, someone who's privilege could buy them out of any situation. But I quickly learned that she wasn't who I had made her out to be at all. Mia told me that her parents didn't even try to get her off. They left her to her 18-month sentence, hoping that it would change her. Mia didn't tell me what she was in for, as she really didn't know herself. Lissa had arrived only a week before I did.
But, I had read enough material and seen enough television to recognize withdrawals when I saw them. Lissa was a junkie. The first week I was there was awful for her, as she was in full-blown withdrawal mode, cut off from her drugs cold turkey. Holding her hair back as she threw up and rocking her as she cried and shook definitely bonded us for life, and we've been best friends ever since.
I never understood what pushed rich kids into doing drugs. I asked Lissa once, and she had said she was depressed. Her older brother Andre had passed away in a car accident the year before, and her parents pulled away from her afterwards. She was left in a huge empty house with absent parents and few friends, and she had turned to drugs because she had the money.
"I hear we're getting some new CO's today," Mia says, wagging her eyebrows while scooping the last bit of eggs off her tray.
"How do you eat this stuff, Mia? It tastes like sawdust," Jill asks her, stabbing around her plate with her utensils.
"I've been here for four years, babe. This is the best it's gonna get. I love eating and I'm not gonna let the fact that this tastes like shit get me down," Mia answers, winking at Jill.
"How do you know we're getting new CO's?" I ask, eyeing Alto from across the room. As if he possessed a sixth sense, he turned my way and scowled at me.
"Alto's wife is about to pop. He's taking paternity leave, or so I heard," she answers me.
"Where do you get your information from Mia? I swear you're like the TMZ of St. Vlad's!" Lissa laughs.
"A good investigator never reveals her sources!" Mia says, standing up with her tray laughing, setting it with the other dishes and sitting back down at the table.
"Was it Mason? Fucking Ashford's mouth is even bigger than yours Mia. When you get out of here you two gossip mongers should start a magazine," I say, talking about my favorite guard Mason Ashford. I worked in electrical with him, and he was one of the only guards in here that treated me like a person. We have our own little joking thing going, and I actually enjoyed my work duty because he was there.
"Maaaaybe. You know, I have to admit he's been looking hotter and hotter lately. I think he's been going to the gym," Mia says, letting out a satisfied sigh.
"Oh gross. Please don't tell me you have the hots for Mason. Actually, I'm going to tell him, it'll totally make his day!"
"Tell him whatever you want Rose. I haven't had sex in four years. A little eye candy never hurt anyone," Mia jokes again, while Jill chokes on her oatmeal.
"She's right. You know, that Christian guy who teaches the cooking class isn't bad looking," Lissa says innocently.
"Shut up Liss! You've totally been crushing on him for months! I see you staring at him all starry-eyed every time we pair up in class," Sydney chimes in.
"Ugh! I do not get starry-eyed, Sydney. She's exaggerating," Lissa tells the table.
"Wait, wait. Is this Christian guy tall and kind of lanky? Black hair, blue eyes?" I ask Sydney, knowing Lissa is too embarrassed to answer.
"Yes! That's him," Sydney says.
"Nice, Liss. He's totally cute. I can see why you're hot for him," I tell her.
"I'm not hot for him, okay? I just think he's good looking. It's not like anything can happen between us anyways. I'm incarcerated, remember? And he probably just does this so that it'll look good on his resume. He'd never be interested in me," Lissa finishes dejectedly.
"Alright ladies, trays up! No food items leave this room. Everyone up and off to work duty!" another CO, Croft, yells.
We all shuffle out of the room grumbling and dumping out our trays along the way. I was excited about getting to see Mason, but I still hated people controlling my schedule every day.
I bid my goodbyes to my group as Mia made her way to the library where she worked, Lissa and Sydney head off to custodial duty, and Jill and I head over to the warehouse area where those who worked in electrical went.
As far as prison jobs went, electrical wasn't so bad. It wasn't as cushy as Mia's job putting books in order in the library, where she mostly got to nap, but it was definitely better than mopping and cleaning toilets that Lissa and Sydney got saddled with. And on the plus side, I was shit at anything technological before. I could barely turn on my laptop, but now I could fix a spark plug in a microwave.
"Hey Mase, you're looking particularly redheaded today," I chime, as I walk into the empty room and spot Mason with his feet kicked up on the table reading a magazine.
"And you're looking particularly ravishing in your beige scrubs today, Hathaway," Mason jokes, putting down his magazine to smile at me. I would guess Mason was probably anywhere from 22-26, but his baby face threw me off. I had a feeling he was a little older than I suspected, but I had never asked him.
"How old are you Mason?" I ask.
"Twenty five. Why?" He asks.
"Just curious," I say honestly.
"It's Rose's birthday today," Jill says from behind me, already sitting at our table, smiling.
"Oh shit, it is? I was saving this for my lunch, but damn, Hathaway. Happy Birthday!" he says, as he fishes something out of a paper bag on the floor.
"Holy fuck is that a chocolate donut?" I say, my mouth already watering.
"You bet your ass it is. Now eat it quickly before the rest of the girls get in here, I don't want them bitching about me playing favorites."
I took the donut from his hands quickly and make my way to my table over with Jill. I stare at the donut for a few seconds under the table, like it'll disappear if I have it for too long, before ripping it in half. I handed the smaller of the two pieces to Jill, and she mildly protests before realizing she's holding a piece of heaven in her hands, and scarfs it down quickly while I do the same.
After devouring the delicious piece of heaven that Mason so graciously gifted me, I wiped my hands quickly on my depressing beige pants before moving my eyes to my work station. Today's exciting work adventure looked like I had to attempt to fix the wiring in a broken lamp.
"Any luck with that yet?" I asked Jill who was working on her own broken lamp.
"Rose, you're speaking to the girl who doesn't even know how to work a blow dryer. I'm still not sure how I ended up in electrical and not custodial or kitchen duty," she jokes.
"Well…I guess you can't really make it worse since it's already broken. Plus, you're learning real life skills for when we get out of here," I joke back with her.
I look up from the wires I'm pretty sure I'm tangling even worse than before to see most of the members of the electrical crew had arrived.
"Hathaway!" Mason calls out, the friendliness from earlier now gone due to the other's presence in the room.
"Yes, Officer Ashford?" I answer.
"Where are Dashkov and Lazar?" he asks me, pointing to the two empty seats a couple rows behind me.
"Hungover, probably puking their guts out," I mumble under my breath.
"What was that?" he asked.
"How should I know? I'm not their keeper. I saw them this morning for count but I don't know if they were at breakfast," I answer back, my tone neutral.
He nods at me, acknowledging that he heard my answer before grabbing his radio on his shoulder.
"CO Ashford here, does anyone have eyes on Natalie Dashkov or Avery Lazar?" he speaks into the radio.
"I just sent em your way. They were lollygagging in the B Dorm bathroom," I hear someone respond over the radio. It sounded like CO Castille.
"Thanks," Mason replies, and looks expectantly towards the door.
A couple minutes later, Natalie and Avery come bursting through the door, giggling like fiends. Natalie was similar in age to my little group, but we made a point not to include her. Girl was, in simple terms, a crazy bitch. She was a druggie, a meth head to be more specific, and people who did meth did some crazy shit. Rumor has it that she ripped the throat out of one of her teachers with her teeth while she was high. I'm not sure why she was even in minimum security to be perfectly honest. Although I'd never seen her get violent, who knew what she was really capable of.
Tossing her scraggly black hair over her shoulder, Natalie's green eyes locked with mine and narrowed. She had tried to befriend us, but we made sure to steer clear of her.
"Sorry we're late CO Ashford," she said in a sickly sweet voice, her nasty brown and yellow teeth showing in her mouth.
"Just go to your work stations before I give you both a shot," Mason replied curtly.
Behind Natalie, Avery smirked. Avery was older than us by a few years, around twenty-seven I would guess, and was the leader of their little drugged up crew. She looked like someone who would've been really pretty had circumstances been different. She was tall and skinny, and had long brown hair that was lank and dull from not being taken care of. She also had bright blue eyes framed by thick lashes, but her face was sallow and bony. She also had teeth customary to most long-term meth users, stained brown and yellow and generally looking like they came from the mouth of a colonial peasant.
Natalie and Avery both made their way back to their respective work stations, Avery making sure to bump into me and Jill's table and she passed.
"Bitch," I mumble under my breath.
A couple hours passed as I continue to tinker with my lamp, not really making any progress. I was okay with microwaves now, but lamps were another story.
Grabbing my screwdriver under the guise of checking the tool back in with Mason, I make my way up towards the front.
"Hey, Mase. I heard talk that we were getting some new COs soon. Know anything about that?" I whisper.
"Man, Mia has a big mouth doesn't she?" he whispers back, shaking his head.
"Come on, Ashford. What's the scoop?" I beg, making my eyes wide and pouting my lips.
"Fuck, Rose. You know I can't resist that face. Alto told me we'd be getting some new COs in tomorrow morning. Three, I think. Two dudes and a lady officer," he says.
"Three? Why do we need three more? Its only Alto taking paternity leave right?" I say.
"Yeah, but Warden Kirova wants to crack down. She doesn't want any more shit going down like the green bean incident. She wants more quality control," he tells me.
"Great. Just when I thought I had a good reading on the COs here, I get three more to add to the mix," I say and roll my eyes.
It made life easier in here when you knew what COs were cool and which weren't. There were those you could joke with, like Mason and occasionally his good friend Eddie Castille, although Castille was a little more strict and rule abiding. Then there was Stan, who wasn't unfair in his treatment per se, but he wasn't very friendly or very nice either. There was another guard, some Greek guy, who I hadn't run into very often because he mostly patrolled the dorms on the other side of camp from us. I think his name was Spiridon or Sparta or something. Then there was CO Croft, who, like Alto, was sort of a hardass but was a little bit nicer. There were several other guards who patrolled throughout the camp, but I didn't run into them often enough to really remember their names or temperament.
I sat back down and continued to work on my lamp, and before I knew it, it was time for dinner.
Me and Jill and others from electrical made our way to the cafeteria, and stood in line to get our trays. As we made our way towards the front, I noticed the head of the kitchen, Galina, keeping a watchful eye over her kitchen staff. Galina, or Red, as most people called her, was in her late thirties and took great pride in running the kitchen here at St. Vlad's. She had been in prison for over ten years now, and I'd heard rumors that she was involved with the Russian mob. I'm pretty sure that's where her nickname Red came from.
After Jill and I were handed our trays, holding something that looked like chicken in a brown sauce, peas, a piece of bread and a cup of jello, we made our way to our usual table, where Lissa and Sydney already sat.
"What happened to your shirt?" I ask Lissa, noticing that she wasn't wearing her beige top to match her pants, but just a plain gray t-shirt that she usually wore underneath.
"Toilet mishap," Sydney laughed while Lissa rolled her eyes and ripped the crust off her bread with unnecessary force.
"So it has been confirmed with my favorite redheaded CO that we will, in fact, be receiving three new COs tomorrow morning," I announce to the table just as Mia arrives.
"Three?! Why three?" Lissa asks.
"Because Warden Kirova wants to crack down on us unruly inmates," I say jokingly.
"I'd hardly say we're unruly," Sydney says.
"Are they all men? I'm in need of some new eye candy. Croft is the only CO who patrols the library, and while he's got that whole silver fox thing going on, he's such a hardass. So not fun to flirt with," Mia says.
"You've actually tried flirting with Officer Croft? How'd that go down?" Jill asks Mia.
"Well secretly I think he was flattered that a young, hot inmate such as myself was complimenting him," Mia says.
"And…?" I ask, knowing there's more to the story.
"And he gave me a shot and told me to address him as Officer Croft only," Mia says, rolling her eyes and pouting.
"Wait, what did you call him?" Sydney asks, eyes wide.
"It may have been something along the lines of Officer Sexy, but I swear to god he looked totally flattered for a second!" Mia insists, causing our whole table to burst out into laughter.
After dinner had been finished and we had been released from the cafeteria, we made our way to our respective bunks where we were free to do what we pleased until lights out at 9:30pm. I for one wanted a shower. If I showered in the morning, one, it was more crowded and two, my hair would never dry. It was best to let it dry overnight or else my shirt and my back would be damp all day. I loved my thick, dark brown locks that reached the middle of my back, but sometimes they were a bitch to deal with when I had no styling tools to work with.
I had inherited my dark brown hair from my Turkish father, along with my golden skin tone and chocolate brown eyes. Everything else, including my toned physique that still held ample curves, came from my mother. Lissa was constantly commenting on how jealous she was of my figure. Even though we were both around 5'7'', she was model thin and wasn't really all that curvy. Still, she had a figure other girls would die for.
Grabbing my shower gear, I made my way to the mostly empty B Dorm shower area. Only one other person was using a stall. As quickly as I could, I lathered up my hair and washed it, enjoying the feeling of the hot water running down my body before the water got cold. I finished my shower and dried off my body quickly, slipping on my pajama t-shirt and shorts. I kept my hair up in my towel as I made my way back to my bunk, stopping to chat with Mia and Sydney before I flopped down on my bed. Jill shared a bunk with Camille Conta, another inmate around our age who stuck with the drug users, but they were at the very end of the hall. I looked over at Lissa who was reading Pride and Prejudice in her bunk.
"So, have you seen your sexy Chef lately?" I ask her, bending over the edge of my bed to dry my hair with my towel.
"Rose, please. I only see him on Tuesdays and Thursdays when we have class. I haven't seen him since last week, not that it matters," she scoffs, not even looking up from her book.
"You liiiiike him," I tease, whipping her legs lightly with my towel.
"Rose! I'm trying to read in peace here," she says, closing her book and glaring at me.
"Lissa you've read that book like four times since we've been here. I'm pretty sure the plot is the same as last time," I say, continuing to pester her.
"Look, I'm serious. Next time you see him, compliment him and see if he flirts back. You never know, he could be one of those guys who has a creepy fetish about women behind bars," I say, mostly joking.
She gave me one last glare before picking her book back up and ignoring me for the rest of the night. As I lay there in my bunk trying to fall asleep, I couldn't help but wonder about the new COs that would be arriving tomorrow. I had a feeling some big changes were headed our way.
Next chapter is a little taste of Officer Belikov and the other new guards! Reviews are always welcome!
And just in case anyone was curious, the title of each OITNB episode comes from a line of dialogue from the episode itself, so I'm trying to emulate that here as well with my weird chapter names.