After a long school day, Alex waited for her mom in the cafeteria, which was known as The Commons, and snacked on a freshly baked lemon scone.
"How was your first day, hon?" Diane asked as she threw an arm over her daughter's shoulders.
"Exhausting." She wiped the crumbs on her skirt. "I need a drink."
Anyone who saw Diane Vause would recognize the pride she had for her daughter, oozing out of her pores. "Let's stop at St. Nick's for a beer. My treat."
Once they reached the bar, they talked about Alex's day, the students, and about her decision to move into one of the houses on campus. Alex ordered a shot of tequila. Her mother obliged but allowed only one shot and a beer.
"Can I borrow the car after I drop you off?" She downed a healthy swig of Narragansett lager.
"Sure. Why?"
"I want to go check out the house where I'll be staying." She cracked open a peanut shell and popped the nut into her mouth. "Apparently the maintenance crew finished whatever work they needed to today, and I can move in whenever I'm ready."
"That's great, Al!" Diane paid the tab in cash. "Want me to come with you?"
"No, thanks. I won't be long." She stood and walked with her mom outside.
"Take as long as you need," she said. "It's great to have you back home, kid."
The sun was about to set as Alex arrived back at Gateway. She hadn't known that there was a large pond at the far end of campus until she drove along the east side of it and headed up the driveway to House 10. All of the houses looked identical from the outside, and she'd heard that they all looked the same on the inside as well, except for the personal touches that teachers and administrators added.
She'd brought over two boxes that she hadn't even unpacked from college. As she carried one into the house, she saw two girls jogging around the outskirts of campus. Before she stepped into her new home, one of the girls lifted a hand just above her waist in an improvised wave. Alex smiled softly and waved back as best she could with the large box in her arms. She recognized the girl as the blonde from her Advanced Literature class, but she did not recognize the other girl with whom she was jogging.
Alex retreated into the house and put the box on a chair near the door. The space was old and charming, with wide-planked wooden floors and two stained glass windows flanking the picture window in the front of the house. There were two levels, and both bedrooms were on the second floor. This will do just fine, she thought.
As she began unpacking the first box, Alex heard a tap on the slightly opened front door. She twisted around and was greeted by a panting blonde.
"Hey," she greeted as she proceeded to the entryway. "You're out of breath."
"That's what running five miles does to a person," the blonde replied with a nod.
Alex hooked a thumb over her shoulder. "Do you want some water or something?"
"Yeah," she wiped the sweat, dripping down her forehead with the hem of her shirt. "Water would be nice."
Alex immediately tore her eyes away from the girl's exposed torso and walked towards the kitchen. "I'm just moving in and don't know where anything is."
"This is Mrs. Rankin's house," the blonde announced from a few feet away.
"Yeah, but she's in Michigan." She opened several cabinets until she found the glasses. "I'm only staying here until she comes back after Christmas." Alex filled the glass with tap water and handed it to the blonde. "And I thought you said you called teachers by their first name?"
"We do," she paused to take a long swig of water. "Except for Mrs. Rankin."
"Are you bullshiting me?" The dark haired woman quickly recanted. "Sorry, this whole teacher thing is new to me. I'm not supposed to curse."
"It's nothing I haven't heard before," she smiled and finished the water. "And no, I'm not bullshitting you."
Alex took the glass and refilled it. "Why were you running so far?"
"Cross country." She took the glass from Alex and sipped more water. "I'm the captain this year."
"Good for you, kid." The brunette leaned against the counter.
"I've never been inside a teacher's house before," she stated, looking around the kitchen. "Except for Mr. Bounds—he has quarterly dinners for school leaders."
Alex raised her eyebrows and tensed. "Then you probably shouldn't be here."
She finished the rest of the water and slid the glass on the counter towards Alex. "You're probably right."
The dark haired woman walked her guest back to the front door. "It occurs to me that I still don't know your name."
"Piper," she extended her hand to shake Alex's, "Piper Chapman."
The blonde's grip felt good—firm yet soft. Long fingers, short nails.
"Thanks for stopping by, Piper," she said with a smile. "But don't make a habit of it."
"What if I'm thirsty on the fifth mile?" she asked with a tilted head.
"I'll set some water on the porch for you."
"Like a dog?" Piper grinned.
Alex returned the smile. "Maybe I'll call you Fluffy instead."
"That's a terrible name for a dog," the blonde chuckled. "Maybe Champ or Boss or Ernest."
"Ernest? As in Hemingway?" Alex brushed a piece of long, black hair behind her shoulder.
She nodded. "My favorite."
Alex rested her hand high on the edge of the opened door. "Hmm…We'll have to talk, The Sun Also Rises."
"Not my favorite, but ok," she replied, bending down to tie one of her shoes.
Alex got a good peek down the girl's shirt—magenta sports bra contrasted against lightly tanned skin. She quickly averted her eyes and took a step back. There was no way she was traveling down that road.
"Run safe," the brunette said somewhat idiotically.
"I'm going to walk from here." She stood and walked backwards down the driveway. "I live in the dorm."
"Ah," she nodded. "Then walk safe for that, you know, hundred yards."
Piper held up her hand again, just like she'd done earlier, in a small wave and smiled. "See you in class tomorrow."
When the blonde was out of sight, Alex closed the door and leaned her back hard against it, willing away images of a fit, tan, intelligent Piper Chapman.
The next day, Alex wore a black-and-white striped elbow-sleeved shift and the same boring ass, one inch heels as the day before. She only had five outfits that would be deemed "professional attire," which meant that she'd need to go shopping once she received her first paycheck.
On the way to school, she told her mom that she planned to move that weekend, and that she needed to find a car to travel from Gateway to Columbia once classes began in two weeks. Her mom offered to give her their beat up 1985 Corolla, but Alex told her she'd find a good deal elsewhere.
When Piper entered the classroom, Alex pushed up her glasses and smiled. The blonde smiled demurely at the teacher and found her seat in the middle of the seminar style oval.
"As you might have figured out," the teacher began. "I forgot to call roll yesterday. So here we go…" She proceeded to call each name in the room, and she couldn't help but smirk when she reached Chapman.
"We began yesterday with two questions, and so we shall today. Get together with your people and figure out what you want to know."
Five minutes passed, and Alex called on Abe, a white kid with a red afro.
"Do you have a boyfriend?" He and four other boys laughed.
"Juvenile and borderline inappropriate," she stated with a frown.
She heard one of the boys in the room whisper, jackass, and watched the girls roll their eyes.
"I'll answer, but be warned that I don't do well with stupid questions." She looked directly at Abe. "No, I do not."
One of the boys cleared his throat and sat up a little taller. Like he had a chance.
"Next…" She looked around the room and called on one of the Caitlins.
"Where did you go to college?" she asked bashfully.
"University of California, Berkeley," she replied with a grin. "Ok, we're talking Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake today. Who can tell me a little about Indian culture from reading this novel?"
The students were assigned three books to read over the summer, and the lesson plan for the first two weeks of school were about these novels. Alex appreciated the lesson plans and thought they were decent, but to her, they were formulaic. She needed to establish herself with these kids, and then she'd teach them the way that she felt they should be taught—in preparation for a college class.
The first week of school went better than expected, but Alex was ready for the weekend. She didn't have much to take into her new home, but she spent the entire day with her mom, moving and setting up her house.
It was the first time in her entire life that she had a place to herself. In college, she'd had at least one roommate, if not three or four. On Sunday evening, once all of her stuff was put away, she sat on her sofa (already part of the décor) and enjoyed a glass of rosé. As she dove into an Octavia Butler novel, she heard a knock on the door.
She stood and proceeded to the door. "Who is it?"
"Piper Chapman."
She opened the door and saw the blonde standing there with a large object wrapped in brown paper.
"Piper, you can't be here," she said with some amount of reluctance.
"Relax, Alex, I'm not coming inside." She handed her the rectangular object. "This is for you."
There was something about the way the blonde said her name that made her breath hitch.
Alex took the package. "What is it?"
"Open it."
Before doing as she was told, she looked the blonde in the eye. "Piper, if this is a gift, I can't…"
"Please," she pleaded. "Just open it."
Alex unwrapped the package awkwardly in the doorway and revealed a painting. "This is beautiful."
"I painted it last year. It's acrylic—sort of like Japanese cherry blossoms, but with red flowers instead of pink."
"You're giving this to me?" She asked in an uncertain tone.
Piper shrugged. "My parents didn't want it, and I don't have space for it in the dorm. I figured you needed some artwork to brighten up this old place."
"It really is lovely." She ran her fingertips over the acrylic flowers, and then looked at the eager blonde with a grin. "Get in here."
Piper followed her teacher inside and shut the door behind her.
"Do you want to major in visual arts in college?" Alex held the painting up over the mantle and glanced at her pupil as if asking for approval.
"God, no." Piper made a motion with her hand to move the painting a bit more to the right. "I've taken art classes my whole life, but I'm more interested in literature and history. I want to be a literary critic."
If she was this talented artistically, Alex thought, she couldn't imagine what this girl knew in terms of those other subjects.
"Both fascinating areas of study," she stated as she rustled through a box for a hammer and nail. "But hardly majors that get you job offers right out of college."
Piper held the painting while the brunette put the nail in the wall. "You majored in lit?"
"Yeah," she said with the nail between her lips. "And I'd only recommend it if you don't mind being unemployed or resorting to teaching in a high school within six months of graduating."
"That doesn't sound so bad." She balanced the painting on her knee and handed Alex the hammer. "What do you want to do after grad school?"
The dark haired woman hit the nail three times and smashed her thumb on the fourth shot. "Fuck!"
The younger girl smiled. "Please don't apologize. You might be shocked to know I've heard that before, too."
Alex climbed off the chair that she had been standing on. "Piper, you seem really nice and you're certainly talented, but you really cannot be here."
"I'm the chief resident assistant," she explained as if that was the answer to everything. "No one is going to question if I'm in a teacher's home."
The brunette had no idea that Piper held such an esteemed role at the school and allowed her leadership position to make her feel somewhat ok about her decision to let the younger girl into her new home.
"Well, I appreciate the gift, and I respect your position, but that doesn't mean you can, you know, hang out here."
"This hardly constitutes 'hanging out,'" she replied, using air quotes. "Let me help with that." Piper climbed onto the chair and hoisted the painting to rest on the nail. "How does that look?"
The dark haired woman gazed at the girl's toned calves and adjusted her glasses. "A little to the left."
Piper shifted the painting, and Alex realized that she'd just been sufficiently bamboozled by a teenager. "I see what you did there."
"What?" she questioned innocently.
"You hung the painting for me in order to extend your welcome." Alex smirked.
"What can I say?" The blonde shrugged. "I like conversing with an intellectual equal."
That caused Alex to laugh wholeheartedly. "You consider me your intellectual equal?"
Piper nodded. "Go ahead. Ask me anything you want about literature or history or art."
Alex was never one to back down from a challenge. She crossed her arms and fired away. "You've read The Outsiders, I'm assuming."
Piper rolled her eyes.
"What was the name and author of the poem that Ponyboy read to Johnny?"
"Please," Piper huffed. "Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost. I can recite it if you'd like."
Alex pursed her lips. "Ok, one more. Besides The Glass Menagerie, what did Tennessee Williams write?"
"A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, and Sweet Bird of Youth," the blonde responded with confidence. "Did I leave anything out?"
"You're no literary slouch, I'll give you that." Alex admired her companion, trying hard to keep her eyes trained on a part of her body that wouldn't cause her breath to catch again. "But it's time to go."
She walked towards the door. "Enjoy the painting."
"Thank you, Piper. That was sweet of you."
"Good night."