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"Mmm-mmm-mmm. This food, right her, is the best thing I've ever had in my mouth." Cindy expressed, stuffing her face with some more fries. Taystee nods in agreement, taking a sip of her soda. "Man, I don't how many times I have to say this. But damn, I'm glad you rich." Aaliyah chuckled, leaning back into Janae's arms. "I am very grateful too. It's comes in handy." Aaliyah said, taking the last bite of her burger. Teyana had made them some double avocado turkey bacon cheeseburgers and some fries on the side. (don't sleep on it y'all)

"You meet her dad?" Taystee asked Cindy with a smirk. Cindy nodded, pushing her empty container to the side. "Mhm, man, he looks like a snack. I didn't even get to say hi! Aaliyah dragged my ass away! She a cockblocker!" Aaliyah scoffed, taking offense and also a bit grossed out. "Well sorry that I don't want to see you flirt with my father!" Cindy shot her a look, getting a middle finger in reply. Janae just chuckled in amusement, finding whole conversation amusing.

The phone at the desk rang, Taystee getting up to answer it. "A'ight, we'll be there." Taystee said before hanging up. "Let's go. We got a delivery y'all!" They all stood up and rushed up to the front,  having been in the visitation room. "Oh, shit, we got a delivery?" Janae jogged up to the doors, looking through the window to see the stacked boxes. Cindy ran over and started rapping, Taystee looking at her unamused. "Yeah, don't ever do that again. Ever."

"Was that Kanye?" Maritza butted in.

Aaliyah jumped slightly at the sudden pounding on the door. "Do we answer?" Janae questions. "I like her ensemble," Flaca comments. Maritza agrees. "Yeah. Not too in-your-riot-face, but some flair." Aaliyah rolled her eyes, leaning against the soda machine as Taystee walked up to the doors. "I'm doin' it." They watch as Taystee pulls off the barrier, opening the door and gesturing for the woman to come closer. "Hello? How may I help you?" Taystee greets, faking a British accent that sounded a lot like Aaliyah's.

Aaliyah scoffed, "Okay, that's just rude."

"Hi, there. Nita? We spoke on the phone, I think? Was that you?" The woman named Nita, said. "Maybe." Aaliyah squints her eyes, suspicious of all of this. "I have a delivery from Governor Hutchinson." She said, clearly reffering to all the boxes stacked in the entry. "Oh. Well...thank you. Thank you very much." Aaliyah rolls her eyes again at the accent, it didn't even sound remotely accurate. "We'll me in touch. Here is my cell. Let's keep the lines of communication open, okay? Okay. Enjoy."

The lady handed T a card before she walked out, Taystee shutting the doors and whispering, "What the fuck?"

Cindy cheers, opening the doors to pull in the boxes as Janae, Taystee, and Alison look at the card. "Thanks for the help, guys. Really appreciate it," Cindy says sarcastically. "Some of us are smart enough not to go near an unmarked box.  I mean, that could be anything. It could be a bomb. Anthrax. Itty-bitty soldiers." Alison said, making a good point.

They all stare at the boxes for a second, Cindy shrugging. "Fuck it. One for you, one for you." Janae and Cindy ripped off the tape, Aaliyah still staying where she was with her arms crossed. "Cheetos!" Janae tossed some to Maritza. All of them cheering when the other box revealed to be Takis. "Tampons?" Alison furrowed her brows, holding a box of tampons that came from another box.

"Hot Cheetos, Takis, and tampons just don't have the same ring to it, you know?" Cindy said. Aaliyah glanced at Taystee who had come to a realization. "Yo, yo, yo...they're meeting our demands." Aaliyah's eyes diverted to the floor, not sure that's what they were doing. She knew how the government worked. There's no way this was them meeting their demands. Everyone else seemed to buy it though.

"Told you, man! You did it. Don't need nobody to speak for us. Fuck yeah!" Janae cheered, grabbing Aaliyah's hand and pulling her over, feeling like she wasn't involved. Janae offered her a bag of Cheetos, causing Liyah to decline. "I'm more of a Takis girl myself. But I'm not exactly feeling either of the two."

Aaliyah leaned next to Janae's ear, "I'm gonna go get some air. I'll catch up with you later, okay?" Janae nodded in understanding. Aaliyah smiled softly, pressed a kiss to her cheek before walking out, not taking any chips with her.

"Where she goin'?" Taystee asks.

"To get some air."

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Aaliyah was upset, just like everyone was. She had been sitting in the corner of the visitation room, her knees pulled to her chest, listening to Teyana's music on the phone. Normally, she would want Janae's comfort, but Janae had her own stuff to deal with. And Aaliyah preferred to battle this on her own. The moment of Poussey's life ending was on repeat in her head and she couldn't stop it. She couldn't stop blaming herself. Had she not started the protest, would Poussey still be alive? That question was on an endless loop.

The sound of her music stopping and the phone buzzing, pulled her from her thoughts. She answered the unknown number, slowly raising it to her ear with a confused look. "Uh, hello? Who's this?" It could've been someone who got the phone into prison, but in this case. It wasn't. "Aaliyah? Is this you?" Aaliyah's eyes practically buldged out of their sockets hearing that voice. How the fuck was this possible?

"Carol?"

"Hi cookie," Carol smirked to herself, holding the phone to her ear. "If this is some stupid prank, I swear. No, this is bullshit." Aaliyah scoffs, not believing this. Carol scoffs, taking offense, she's quick to snap back. "Bulltrue." Oh yeah, it was her. Aaliyah chuckles, "Okay, yeah it's you alright. How is this possible? How did you get this number?" Aaliyah leaned back against the pillows, getting seated more comfortably.

"Oh, it wasn't easy. I had pay someone to get your brother's number so he could give me this one. I seen you on the news. I got concerned." Carol explained. Yes, the Carol Denning, was concerned for someone. It was nice to see how far they've come. At first, Carol was very hesitant to tell her anything and now she was doing the most just to talk to the girl. "That's sweet of you. Just before you called, I was actually on the verge of a mental breakdown. Ya know, dead friend and all."

Carol knew the feeling of losing a friend, only she lost hers to betrayal, not death. "You'll get through it. You're strong." This is all she could really say. She didn't know how else to help. "How's that bitch of a mother doing?" Carol questioned. She was completely unaware of Alissa being dead, clearly. Aaliyah didn't want to tell her yet. It wasn't good timing. She much preferred to tell Carol in person, seeing as after this riot, they would be taken to Max for holding until minimum was up and ready.

"I wouldn't know. I haven't heard from her since she saw me kissing a woman." Aaliyah chuckles, remembering how good that kiss felt. Carol scoffs. "Of course. You know, I never did like that about her. Why the hell does it matter so much? It's not like she's religious." Carol was heavily supportive when it came to Aaliyah's love life. She didn't care who Aaliyah was with as long as she was happy. And this was quite rare from someone from the 80s.

"That's what I keep sayin'. Anyways, enough about my terrible mother. How are you doing? No conflict between you and Barbie, right?" Carol rolls her eyes at the mention of Barb. Then again, she always felt repulsed when people brought her up. Which is why she was quick to change the subject. "No, this isn't about me right now. I called you to see how you were doing. So, how are you doing? Is everything going okay over there?"

"I'm not so sure. I think the mayor is trying to bribe us or something. There's no way there gonna meet our demands so soon. We're gonna have to wait them out. Which I'm not so sure many of us can do, considering we're running low on food. I personally, can go through a week without food so it's no trouble for me." Aaliyah hums with a smile, wrapping her arms around the frog plushie that was in the corner for kids when they came to visit.

"Of course you can. You had that whole skinny faze." Carol pointed out. She remembered quite literally all of these fazes. "I must say, I am quite flattered you remember all of these things about me when you seem to enjoy calling me a "little shit." It's quite sweet." Aaliyah teases with a small chuckle, she could hear the soft laugh of Carol in reply. She could tell Carol was smiling for sure. "You're practically my daughter. I have to know these things."

It was nice having someone care about you even if they seemed heartless to other people. Carol was one of those people. She seemed heartless. But in reality, there was still this young, fun loving teenage girl inside her. Aaliyah just had to bring that out. And she did. Another reason it was easier for that to happen was because Aaliyah was Carol's first visitor in her entire time she'd been locked up. So it was nice to finally get a visitor after so long. It made her feel important. Aaliyah made her feel important.

"Yes, except you would kill me if I called you "mum," wouldn't you?" Aaliyah jokes. "I would. That title makes me feel old, and like your mom," Carol replied. She glanced outside of her cell, seeing a CO getting ready to check in. "Shit. I gotta go, cookie. And don't call me back on this number, I gotta give it back. I'll contact you when I can, okay? You stay safe but fuck a bitch up if you need to." Carol said. Aaliyah chuckles softly, nodding, "I will. It was nice to hear your voice. Thanks for calling."

"No problem kid." Carol smiled softly before hanging up, sighing, she tucked the phone under her pillow. She wished Aaliyah was in Max with her if she was being completely honest.

Aaliyah looked up seeing Taystee, Alison, and Cindy barge into the room with black trash bags in their hands. "You was right man. They tryna bribe us." Taystee said, Cindy taking Aaliyah's hand and pulling her up. "So what are we gonna do about that?" Aaliyah raised a brow, pulling out her taser.

"We gonna burn the bribe."

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Aaliyah squinted her eyes from the sun, seeing Janae and Soso run pass her. She smiled, glad they were somewhat getting along now. She didn't have to ask to know that Janae was helping Brook blow off some steam, seeing as Janae did that with Aaliyah. "Hey! We gon' need your snacks." Cindy says towards Maria and Dayanara. Maria scoffs, "Oh, you see how you just say, "yours"? As in, belonging to us?" The two turn to face the group.

"It's important," said Alison.

"You're like, what, the snack police?" Daya questions sarcastically. "Yo, they were a bribe. Mr. Fancy-Pants Governor thought he would trick us into surrendering with snacks and tampons." Taystee explains as Alex and Piper walk up to see what was happening. "They trying to plug all our holes."

"So you're throwing them away?" Alex placing her hands on her hips, "That's a great plan." Aaliyah rolled her eyes, not having any time for her sarcasm. "We gotta show 'em we're serious." Aaliyah stated. "That's badass." Piper adds, in agreement with Aaliyah. Alex was quick to argue, "No, it's stupid." Dayanara appeared to agree with Alex. "Yeah. Don't- don't we want this to end?" She questions, knowing she clearly wanted it to end, tired of feeling the way she was.

"We want justice," Taystee stated before Liyah could.

"Well, you want justice. We want to go home to our families at some point." Maria argues. Aaliyah furrowed her brows, wondering when Maria became so against the riot when she was one of them main people to lead it. "Well, some of us ain't got a home outside. This is my home, and I'mma fight for it." Taystee spoke, proving a point. If they were all forced to live there, they could at least making it comfortable.

"Do you think that they would be doing this to us if we were men? This is so insulting." For once did Aaliyah actually start to agree with Piper. Maybe she wasn't so bad after all. "Exactly. Thank you." Aaliyah huffs.

Alex pushed up her glasses, mumbling, "Here we go." Piper turned to her for a slight second, feigning offense, "What? I'm done sitting out there and sunbathing I mean, we've all done the hard part." Aaliyah nods, "That's we I've been sayin'. All we gotta do is wait 'em out." Piper agreed, "We owe this to ourselves." Aaliyah smiled, "That's right." She and Piper go for some awkward handshake with Aaliyah ending up just shaking her fist.

Piper smiled, glad they finally made up, sorta kinda. "How can I help?"

"You can collect. But people ain't gonna like you." Taystee says, handing Piper the black trash bag. "Story of my life." Taystee snatches the bag of Cheetos from Maria before following Piper. "I'll threaten, you'll collect, m'kay?" Piper nods at Aaliyah's instructions. Good with her plan.

"We need all y'all motherfuckin" Cheetos! Give 'em up!" Cindy shouts.

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They luckily managed to collect the majority of the chips, minus the ones already in stomachs. Aaliyah kicked open the door, letting the girls through. They dumped the bags of chips and tampons. "Get this on tape, huh!" Taystee said, dumping another one. "Yall wanna bribe?!" Aaliyah grabbed another one, dumping it out. "Get this on tape! You motherfuckers wanna bribe us, huh? Get this shit on tape!"

Aaliyah and Chapman dumped the last ones. "I think that's all of 'em," Taystee said. "Only minus the snacks in bellies." Cindy says, Alison adding, "and tampons in vaginas." Aaliyah handed Piper her phone before she pulled a lighter from her pocket, Taystee grabbing a box of tampons and taking one out. Piper prepared the phone, "Okay. We're good to go."

The door opened, Janae running out last minute. "Yo, what the hell?" Janae stood behind Aaliyah, "We burnin' the bribe." Taystee and Liyah spoke simultaneously. "Oh, fuck, yeah. Yo, that's what I'm talkin' about, baby." Taystee got a brand new tampon and held it up for Aaliyah. Cindy sprinkling some vodka, courtesy of Teyana who packed one in the bag, figuring they might need it. Piper turned the camera towards them, on a video call with Nita.

"Hi, Nita. Welcome to the party." Aaliyah flickered the lighter on with a smirk as Nita questioned them. "Flaming Cheetos, y'all!" Cindy said into the camera. "Hey, T, tell this woman what we want," Janae said. "We want to be motherfuckin' taken serious!"

"Hell yeah!" "That's right!"

"Bye, Nita!"

Aaliyah lit the tampon on fire, Taystee quickly tossing it to the pile, lighting it on fire. Janae hooked an arm around Liyah's waist, pulling her back from the fire. She laughed, flipping off Piscatella. "Fuck you, Piscatella!"

They all laughed, Piper handed Aaliyah the phone back. She turned it to face herself, blowing a kiss before shutting the camera off.

"Burn bitch! Burn!"

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a/n: not much jaliyah in here bc of janae helping out soso! which we love obvs

i just had to add some carol & aaliyah time bc i luv their dynamic sm and im so excited to write it in season six 😭

piper and aaliyah making up 🥲 >>

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