A few weeks into life in her new town and Piper had settled in nicely, she'd already developed friendships stronger than those she'd left in the town she grew up in, one in particular with a girl named Polly. She had also started seeing a boy named Jason, something that her mother was very enthusiastic about.

Jason was one of the most sought-after members of their year, and Piper was happy. She didn't know why she liked him so much, the two had next to nothing in common and he was kind of a jerk, but he was the first person she'd ever had feelings for. And, at fifteen, she was absolutely convinced it was more than a crush. Because of their status as one of the it-couples of the year she had also struck up a friendship with one of the girls who had been among her initial welcome party when she first came to the school, Jessica Wedge, whose boyfriend was Jason's 'main man', as he called it. Polly would joke that Jessica was the Regina George of West-high, the comparison was strangely accurate.

Everything about the relationships and friendships that made up their group was very constructed, polished, nobody seemed to quite be exactly themselves but nobody complained either, it was the sort of picture-perfect group of friends that was supposed to be the dream of every teen.

She hadn't had any run-ins with the mysterious Alex Vause, but she still looked for her everywhere - insistent on fuelling her hatred. She had even recruited Polly onto the bandwagon, although it would probably be fairer to say that Polly enjoyed bitching far more than she did. There was something hesitant about Piper's hatred, she knew it was petty but she was stubborn and jealous and convinced herself at every turn that it was justified, Alex was definitely an asshole, despite the fact that the two had never actually had a conversation.

Alex and Nicky lounged lazily on the bleachers, surrounded by a graveyard of cigarette butts. It was a sunny day, a couple days after Alex's sixteenth birthday, and they hadn't moved in hours. Smoking at such a young age earned them an abundance of snidey 'we're so much better than those losers' looks from their classmates, but they rarely noticed and never cared. If Jessica was the Regina George of the school then Nicky was most certainly Janis Ian, the rich popular girl turned burnout, complete with lesbian rumours. She was also Alex's best and only friend. There were a few others who joined them on the bleachers some days, but they weren't really friends, just people as unmotivated as they were.

"Hey Vause, this girl keeps staring at you like you just murdered a puppy." Nicky laughed, watching Alex's reaction and wondering what she could have done to get such a look from the girl.

Alex sat up, looking across the field at the girl who she presumed Nicky was talking about and started to chuckle. It was that Piper girl from her English class, and the description Nicky had provided of the way she was staring at her was alarmingly accurate.

"Come on, what is it?" Nicky was getting impatient with the way Alex was just laughing, she was curious as to what her friend had done to get such a look. "What'd you do?"

"I don't even fucking know" Alex just kept laughing, she felt like she should be seriously offended by the death stare but it was so utterly ridiculous and unprovoked that she couldn't see it as anything other than comical. Her laughter only seemed to make things worse, she watched as Piper's eyes narrowed, her face reddening, but she just couldn't help herself. Piper finally looked away when an arm appeared behind her waist and she turned to talk to that Jason kid, a pang of some unknown emotion went through Alex at this, and her laughter faded.

Nicky broke the silence; "What a fucking weirdo. Light me?" Alex moved to get her lighter as Nicky propped yet another cigarette between her lips. It was going to be a long day, she thought to herself.

It was Friday night and Piper was headed out to the cinema with Jason and a few of their friends, she couldn't really remember what they were seeing, some sort of romantic comedy or something she presumed, thinking back to their regular film choices. It was her first proper date with Jason which was, well, her first proper date ever really, a fairly innocent but oh-so important thing when you're thirteen. She had just finished getting ready when there was a knock at her bedroom door, she groaned, this had been expected. Her mother had appeared to warn her of the perils of boys, she thought Ever since the divorce her mother had become much more interested in her life, which was something she was still getting used to, it seemed that she was trying to compensate for uprooting their family by giving awful advice. Thankfully at that moment the doorbell rang, she rushed past her mother - who looked utterly unimpressed by the whole ordeal - and ran to get the door, pausing to make sure she didn't look a mess. A few minutes of awkward conversation ensued before she was escorted outside, and then they were on their way. There was something different about Jason tonight though, Piper frowned as he grasped her hand, practically dragging her along the sidewalk. He seemed cockier, and he kept making oddly suggestive comments that made her feel nothing but uncomfortable. Was this what dating was like? Her frown deepened as she thought this over.

It was getting dark outside the cinema, there were mere minutes until the movie was supposed to start and she was still waiting on Nicky, late as usual. She didn't really mind though, it wasn't as if she was dying to see the movie anyway, it was just some shitty comedy. But Nicky had forced her into letting a ticket be bought for her and so here she was, waiting. It was another few minutes until she saw a familiar mane of messy hair walking up the road towards her.

"So we just gonna stand out here all evening or what? C'mon Vause we got a movie to see." Nicky sauntered past her, on her way through the doors. Classic Nicky, she thought, an ass as always. Shrugging, she followed, at least they wouldn't have to wait through the previews.

Walking into the theatre they noticed that a large portion of the seats were taken by what seemed to be half the school. It wasn't a big town, and there wasn't all that much for minors to do on a Friday night, the cinema was a popular place. Nicky and Alex shared a look of 'for fucks sake' before making their way to some of the few available seats. Alex watched as Nicky went and sat down, motioning for her to follow, and as she was walking up the aisle she noticed something, Nicky was sitting right behind Piper fucking Chapman. Alex froze and as if on cue Piper looked up, they locked eyes for just a moment and Alex felt like the girl was trying to use her eyes to burn holes into her own. She gave her a smirk, playing it cool, before going to take her seat. Looking over at Nicky who seemed to have found the whole ordeal insanely amusing.

"Fucking jerk." Alex shoved her friend, but there was a grin on her face, this Piper girl may have some weird hate thing going on but Alex felt she was somehow above that, she couldn't see it as anything but immature, and she didn't let it get to her.

It wasn't long into the movie when Alex noticed something going on in the seats in front, Piper and her boyfriend had been exchanging the occasional kiss and such but now she watched as he moved her hand onto his crotch, whispering something in her ear.

Alex nudged Nicky, pointing out the couple's antics.

"I came here for a comedy not a fucking porno Nicky, why'd you pick these seats?" The display was making her feel really uncomfortable although she wasn't entirely sure why. She tried to just focus on the movie.

Evidently, this proved to be a hard goal to achieve, she really couldn't stop herself from noticing the forceful way Jason was being with Piper, and how she pulled away almost at his every touch. Not surprising, Alex thought, he even looked like a massive fucking jerk-off. However, she couldn't help but feel concerned for the girl.

Piper's distress was really beginning to show. Her whispers had become slightly louder than intended and Alex could hear the alarm in them. She glanced along the group that the couple was with, amazed that none of them had noticed the ordeal taking place. Suddenly Piper rose and began to walk down the aisle towards the door, without thinking, Alex followed, glancing back to Nicky she mentioned something about the bathroom and hurried off behind the blonde.

Piper rushed into the bathroom, she could feel the tears on her face and the familiar prick of anxiety in her throat. She needed air, water, something. She felt like it was hard to breathe. Bracing herself against the wall of a toilet stall she locked the door and tried to ground her thoughts. What was Jason doing? Why was he being like this? If she'd known this was what he wanted she wouldn't have come out at all, she was fifteen for Christ's sake! Practically a child! She felt breathless again. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on her breathing. 7,11. In, out. She heard the door burst open behind her, and before she could bring herself to move or even open her eyes someone spoke.

"Are you alright?"

The voice was husky, deep, and full of concern. She'd been expecting one of her friends but she couldn't pinpoint who the voice belonged to, although she knew she recognised it from somewhere. And then it hit her. Oh. She began to panic again, she'd totally forgotten about Alex's presence in the cinema with all that had been going on.

"Go away!"

She had meant to yell her reply but her voice came out weak. Why did Alex follow her? She was well aware that the two girls were far from friends and Piper was entirely certain it was mutual, even if she couldn't figure out the exact source of her feelings herself.

"Just open the door, Piper."

She couldn't help but notice the concern in Alex's voice, although she really didn't understand why. She could use a friend right now but not her, never her. It was none of her goddamn business anyway.

"Just leave! It's none of your business Alex just go away!"

Sounding convincingly angry that time, she heard the door again a few seconds later and she knew the other girl had gone. A part of her cursed herself for sending Alex away, but she just couldn't deal with anything else right now. She waited until she had calmed down and felt ready to return to her seat, she thought about how it was probably normal for him to be like this, he was a few months older than her after all, she convinced herself that she was the one being an ass and went to sit down and apologise. But still, she felt on edge and uncomfortable the whole way through the rest of the movie.

She also couldn't stop thinking about Alex Vause, having to resist the urge to turn around as she felt her stare on the back of her head.

Alex left the bathroom quickly, feeling like a complete ass for even trying to be nice to the girl. She had no idea why following her had seemed like a good idea, she just figured that she would need someone and her 'friends' sure as hell weren't going to help. Practically fuming with anger she took her seat.

"What was that about?" Her friend questioned.

Alex rolled her eyes, "don't even ask."

They watched the rest of the movie in silence, although Alex had to try and stop her thoughts from veering towards kicking Piper's asshole boyfriend in the back of the head.

They said their goodbyes as they left the movie theatre, Alex and Nicky lived in opposite neighbourhoods and it was a rare occasion when they got to walk the same way home. Alex stopped a little way away from the door to light a cigarette and noticed the 'happy couple' having a talk in the mouth of an alleyway down the road. The strange concerned feeling bubbled up again as she saw the panic on the face of the young blonde, her boyfriend pawing at her clothes, he looked slightly angry now as Piper pushed him away for what seemed like the millionth time. Alex watched with alarm as he pulled her deeper into the alley, away from the theatre and the crowds on the road. Without realising what she was doing she started walking towards them, something was wrong, this shouldn't be happening. As she reached the mouth of the alleyway she heard him yelling something about it being only fair, he paid for the movie, and she watched in horror as when Piper pushed him away he grabbed her hand and shoved it down his pants.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Alex cried out, she hadn't even thought about it she just needed to stop this.

Jason turned round to face her. Alex was tall for her age, but he was a pretty big guy and as he approached her she felt a stab of fear in her stomach. She ignored it and her eyes went to Piper as he asked her to leave. She looked terrified, there were tears in her eyes and a look of absolute horror on her face as stared between Alex and her boyfriend.

"Fuck you." She spat, before gesturing to Piper "Come on, we're leaving"

She knew as soon as she'd said it that she'd made a mistake, and it wasn't on Piper's part this time, Piper moved towards her but as soon as Jason saw this he became red in the face, he wasn't used to being challenged, much less defeated, and in a panic he lashed out, catching Alex a nasty blow to the side of the head. She cried out in pain before steadying herself and trying to hold it together, although she could taste blood.

Jason looked between his fist and Alex, panic written all over his face. He was going to get in trouble for this, he thought. Feeling the need to justify himself he yelled out;

"I didn't even... It wasn't... It was, like, your fault anyway, Dyke!" He started to run in the opposite direction, wanting to get as far away as possible from this date gone sour.

Alex wasn't even looking at him by this point, she turned and grabbed a hysterical Piper by the arm, feeling the road twisting beneath her feet she tried to walk away, but only got a few metres before everything went black.

As Alex started to stumble Piper made a weak attempt to support her weight but the two ultimately ended up on the ground, she just lay there for a moment, overcome by tears and with absolutely no idea what to do. She knew there was no way she could call her mother, she wouldn't be able to bring herself to tell her what had happened and with Alex bruised, unconscious and stinking of cigarette smoke there's no way she'd believe that she was the good guy any case. So, instead, she began to search Alex's pockets for a cell phone. She found what was probably the most battered and sorry looking phone possible and soon was dialling the number she found listed under 'MOM'. As the phone rang she cursed her impulse decision and hoped to god that Alex's mum was the understanding type.

"Alex? Honey, I'm working can you make it quick?"

Piper suddenly felt immensely guilty for bothering Alex's mother but she was still unconscious, she needed to go to the hospital and Piper knew it. She made an attempt to stifle her tears.

"Ms Vause? It's Piper here, Alex's, uh, friend. Something's happened..." She could feel a sob stuck in her throat, overwhelmed by the situation. "Alex is hurt, I mean, she's been hit, she's unconscious. I'm so sorry for calling but I didn't know what else to do"

There were a couple seconds of silence on the other end of the line, to Piper it felt like hours.

"Okay hon, where are you? I'm coming to get you guys."

Piper hadn't even realised she was holding her breath but she exhaled with relief before running off the name of the cinema and hanging up the phone. She began to move Alex into a sitting position but as she did so the girl let out a loud groan, starting to mumble something about not wanting to get up yet. Piper breathed yet another sigh of relief and, to her own surprise, began to laugh. It was out of relief more than anything though, relief and panic mixing to make some strange cocktail of insanity. She was just happy that Alex seemed capable of waking up. It was at this point that a rather battered looking car pulled up beside them and a relatively young looking woman came rushing out.

"Alex!" Concern radiated from the voice of Diane Vause. Piper looked up at her for a minute, startled by how much of Alex she could see in the woman's face.

Between the two of them they managed to get the deadweight Alex into the back of the car, Piper took the front, unbearably nervous about having to speak to the mother of the girl she was sure she absolutely hated only a few hours ago. All of this seemed silly now as she turned to face Diane, watching as the woman gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles, worry prominent on her face. She turned to face Piper;

"What happened?" She asked, the pain was audible in her voice.

This was the part Piper had really been dreading, having to explain what had been going on. She could just lie, she thought, say that someone just jumped her or something. No. Alex's mother needed to know the truth, needed to know the stupidly brave thing her daughter had done for someone that she barely even knew.

"Well..." She started, aware of the way her nerves were obvious as she spoke. Her explanation of events continued almost all of the way to the hospital. She thought about how her mother would be expecting her home by now, almost speaking up to ask for a lift, but she knew this was more important, she would get home at some point. This was going to be a long night, she thought to herself.