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"This is rubbish. I can't sew for shit." Aaliyah complains, plopping down on Poussey's bed. They had finally gotten new mattresses so they didn't have to sleep on the frames anymore. "Shouldn't have taken the test then dumbass," Janae says, walking into the bunk and laying on her bed. "I do not need your hostility right now. I'm so fucking stressed and knackered."

"Then go relieve your stress," Janae retorted. And of course Aaliyah's mind goes other places. She sits up with a smirk, "Are you offering?"

Janae throws a pillow at her, "You wish."

Aaliyah laughs, catching the pillow. "Oh I so do." Aaliyah throws it back, standing up, "I'm gonna go workout. Wanna join?" She asks, stretching her arms.

"Are you going to flirt with me the entire time?"

Aaliyah squints. "Is that a trick question?" Janae groans, getting up, "Fine. Let's go."

"As you wish love."

"Stop calling me that."

"As you wish darling." Aaliyah smirks, putting an arm around Janae's shoulders. "I hate you."

"No you don't."

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Aaliyah walked into work with Janae and Cindy, everyone being assigned seats. "Don't freak out if they don't put you wit' Watson," Cindy chuckles lowly. Aaliyah rolled her eyes, "Watch this." Janae and Cindy shared looks, wondering what she was going to do. Aaliyah taps the man on the shoulder and he looks up, "Yes? What can I do for you?"

Aaliyah plasters on a charming smile. "Hi, uh I'm sorry to bother. I don't wanna make your job any harder, trust. But uh, I would appreciate if you could sit me next to Watson. I just lost my mother, and she really helps me calm down with all the panic and anxiety attacks. It would surely make your job easier." Aaliyah says, looking at him with doe eyes, fluttering her lashes. Janae and Cindy bite back their laughter when they see the man clearly start to give in just by the way he looked at Liyah.

He smiles warmly, "Of course. I will be sure you're paired with her. We wouldn't want for you to have any trouble here." He looks down at his chart, switching Stella Carlin with Aaliyah on the chart. Ensuring Aaliyah was sat with Janae Watson.

"You're the best. Thank you so much." Aaliyah smiles, putting a hand on his shoulder for a mere second before returning to her friends. "Haven't lost my touch."

Janae and Cindy share small laughs. "I am sorry I ever doubted you. Got that man love sick, looking at you with them puppy dog eyes." Cindy chuckles.

Aaliyah smiles, leaning her head on Janae's shoulder to play it off more, or maybe she just wanted to touch Janae. "What did you tell him?" Janae asked, raising a brow. Aaliyah giggles, "Basically that you're my support system. He bought it with flying colors." Janae chuckles, shaking her head lightly in amusement.

"Watson, Channing, you're right here." The man instructs, flashing Aaliyah a smile. She flashes one back, taking Janae's hand and pulling her along. "Before you complain, you were originally gonna be sit next to Stella," Aaliyah states, taking a seat at the tables. Janae pursed her lips, "For once, I think I'm actually fine with sitting next to you." There we go, progress.

"I'm not. Now I gotta hear her accent more than I already do," Cindy complains, having to sit across from Aaliyah whilst Flaca got placed across Janae. "It's better than an Australian accent," Aaliyah argues. "I gotta agree with her on that one," Flaca adds.

"And who asked you?" Janae sassed, back to her mean self.

"Be nice. I actually like her. She's pleasing to look at," Aaliyah nudged Janae, getting an eye roll in response. "Oh thank you. I love your makeup so much. It's giving very much Victoria Secret's model." Flaca compliments. Aaliyah smiles at the compliment, "Thank you sweets. I actually tried the modeling thing for a while."

"Really? I could totally see that. You got like the perfect body for it."

Janae raises her brows, "Y'all done?"

Aaliyah turns to her, pouting mockingly, "Awe, are you jealous I'm paying attention to someone else?" Janae stares at her blankly, "Shut up."

"So, stations one and two, you will be at the cutting table this morning cutting patterns. And then everyone else can start assembling the pieces. We will switch out after lunch to avoid fatigue." The man explained. Aaliyah grabbed the magazine on the table, flipping through it as CO Donaldson scolded DeMarco for joking around.

Cindy sighs, flipping through the magazine. "White bitches, white bitches..." Aaliyah chuckles, leaning back in her stool. "All right, check it. How many pages you think it is before they put in a token black girl? And how dark is she, scale of one to Grace Jones?" Cindy questions both Aaliyah and Janae. "All right, 14 and four." Janae guesses.

"13 and three," Aaliyah guesses, not looking up as she flips through hers.

"Aight, let's find out." Cindy flips through it. "Ah! So close. Here she is, page 11." Cindy exclaims. "Man, but that's not too bad," Janae smiles. "But she, like, a two. Lighter that Aaliyah. The bitch got blue eyes." Cindy says, turning it to show Janae and Aaliyah. "Yeah, true. But, damn, look at her abs, though," Janae comments.

Aaliyah scoffs lightly, "the closet is clear as glass, wow."

"I know, right?" Cindy agrees with Janae, looking down at the picture. "Lemme see," Cindy turns it to show Aaliyah again. She pursed her lips, not impressed, "please, mine look way better."

"Oh yeah? Lemme see," Cindy challenged, not believing her.

Aaliyah smirks, pulling her shirt up, showing her way more defined abs. "And I'm not even flexin' 'em." Janae looked up and down, pursing her lips, they definitely did look better.

"Mhm, you got a point actually." Cindy agrees.

Aaliyah flips through another page as Flaca sits back down. "Aaliyah, you were rich. Did you wear shit like this?" Aaliyah purses her lips, thinking about it, "Mmm, honestly, not anything like we're making. I did on the other hand, wear a lot of lingerie, but the material was way better than this, and more sexy." She answers, tossing the magazine down and grabbing the materials to start sewing.

"Damn, I bet it looked real good on you," Flaca replies.

"I got a few pictures I can show you after work," Aaliyah offers. Flaca smiles, "I would love that. You know, the other girls said you were all crazy, but I knew you weren't girl. Maritza would love you."

"That's the one with the cute eyeliner, right?" Aaliyah guesses. Flaca nods, confirming her guess. "She's gorgeous," Liyah comments. "I'll tell her that," Flaca says, sharing a smile with Aaliyah.

"Come on, man. God damn. Ugh." Cindy groans, holding up the panties where she sewed the leg shut. "God damn it." Flaca laughs, "There's a one-legged chick out there that's gonna be real grateful for that." She commented. "Man, ain't you plannin' on doing any sewin' while you here?" Cindy complained.

"I'll get to it. I'm like the Flash with this shit."

"What page you gotta get to before you see a Spanish girl?" Janae questions.

"If you're talkin' about Latinas, there's like 20 different countries that all look different." Flaca holds up the magazine, pointing at the blonde girl who was definitely just white. "See this blonde chick? She could be Latina. We don't know." Aaliyah shook her head, knowing she definitely wasn't. She didn't have a single Hispanic feature. "Let me see." Flaca shows Cindy. "Nah, she probably ain't though."

"No, probably not," Flaca agrees. "Man I gotta start running or something."

"Yeah, I ran all the time and boys just thought I was weird." Janae adds. Aaliyah bit her lip, remembering when Janae used to vent to her about that all the time. "This is why I date women. Girls love a woman with muscles, who can show just how much better she is than a man." Janae pursed her lips, not gonna admit out loud that Aaliyah was right.

"It's all Photoshopped anyway. Special lighting, tape and shit. We're chasing an unachievable standard. Except Aaliyah though, she looks great all the time." Flaca says, looking at the magazine. Aaliyah smiles, taking the compliment. Janae chuckles lightly, "You're enjoying this aren't you?"

"Yes I am."

"I ain't chasin' nothin'. I'm a strong black woman, and we got a different standard of beauty in our community." Cindy was right. They definitely did.

"Not true," Flaca turns down.

"Excuse me?"

"Beyoncé."

Aaliyah looks up fast, knowing she did not just hear that. Janae was quick to speak. "Uh-Uh. Don't you say nothin' 'bout Bey."

Flaca looks up from the magazine. "She ain't out there with her nappy hair and her plus-size dashiki, okay? She playing a white girl game." Flaca defends. Aaliyah scoffs, "And she's winnin'."

"Winnin'! And you provin' my point exactly, Morticia. There are hella ways for black women to be beautiful. A white girl, though..." Cindy glances at Chapman. "They just gotta be skinny." Aaliyah chuckles, nodding in agreement. "They dress the bare fucking minimum and bam, they're declared fashion icons." Cindy hums in agreement with Aaliyah.

"Aren't you like half white?" Flaca retorts.

"Mmm-mmm, the only white thing 'bout Aaliyah is the fact that she rich. And her sexy brother," Cindy defended.

"Did you just call my brother sexy?"

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Aaliyah laid on her bed, listening to Drunk in Love by Beyoncé on the iPod she stole from Luschek's desk. Janae walked over to her bed, "How did you get an iPod?" Aaliyah pulled out an ear buds, "I stole it from Luschek." She shrugged. Janae chuckles, gesturing Aaliyah to move over. She moved more towards the wall, making room so Janae could lay down next to her.

"Here." Aaliyah passed her an ear bud. Janae smiles, "I haven't heard real music in such a long time."

"Yeah, I didn't take Luschek for an R&B fan. He's got a lot of Beyoncé in here." They both laughed, humming along to the song, trying not to draw too much attention to themselves or the CO would confiscate the iPod.

"You hear anything back about Henderson?" Janae asked, moving the pillow under her head to help with the neck pain. "Actually, you just reminded me. I got some mail today from Carol." Aaliyah got up and grabbed the letter Carol wrote her. Both of them sat up as Liyah opened it up.

Dear Aaliyah,

I took care of it.

"That's hella creepy," Janae comments. It was yeah, but they couldn't be too descriptive or the CO's would get suspicious. Aaliyah shrugs. "Eh, at least it's taken care of."

They both lay back down, turning on their sides to face each other. "So how'd you meet Carol?" Janae asked.

"It's quite the story actually. I uh, went to Max to go see my mum, right? She had got locked up for a few months and she went on and on about this Carol person who she had got into it with. I was mad with my mother. She had promised to clean herself up and, disappointed me again. So, just to spite her, I got myself added to Carol's visitation list. And when we talked, she was like the kindest person ever. So we kept talking, and I kept visiting, and she always asked me about myself. She never made it about her."

"She wrote me all the time, and one day my mum uh, found the letters. And she beat me." A tear fell from her eye, falling onto the pillow. Janae felt bad, sorta knowing that pain from when a parent hits you for the first time. It's almost like, betrayal. The people who promise to protect you, hit you like it's nothing. "Carol seen the bruises, and she was like fucking furious. She couldn't do anything, but she wished she could. She wished she could've protected me. And from there on, I knew Carol was the mother I wish I was able to have."

"It's a bit odd, you know? Feeling more safe with a sister killer rather than my own birth giver. But, maybe some people just aren't meant to be parents." I'm sure a lot of people could agree to that. It sucks just how easily people are able to become parents. Some people just don't deserve the right to have children.

"I get it. I remember when my dad hit me for the first time. I couldn't even move, I was just stuck there for a second, processing it." Aaliyah knew. Remembering when Janae told her the exact night it happened. "Did you tell anyone?" Obviously she knew she did but Liyah wanted to see if Janae remembered.

"Uh, no I don't think- wait no actually, I told this, this girl I met on MySpace. I can't remember her name but she was hella understanding. I actually kinda miss talkin' to her. I wonder what happened to her." She's in prison with you. Janae chuckles at the thought. Aaliyah smiled, glad Janae at least remembered some of it. "She's probably sipping margaritas on some fancy yacht, wondering why you haven't responded to her texts," Liyah joked.

Janae laughs, "Nah, she prolly don't even remember me. Cause I sure can't remember much about her." Ouch. That hurt.

"If you got the opportunity to talk to her again, what would you say?" Janae didn't know why Liyah wanted to know, but it was a good question.

"I would say I miss her."

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a/n: AALIYAH AND FLACA <3

i love writing janae and liyah moments so much

what do y'all think of jiyah as a ship name? or liynae? orr jaliyah? i love jaliyah ngl

them listening to beyoncé together >>

CAROL AND AALIYAH'S STORY WILL BE IMPORTANT LATER ON

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