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It was lunch time, Janae, Cindy, Alison, and Aaliyah were knackered. Meanwhile, Taystee got to sit at a desk like a good secretary. Now they were having a debate on whose job is harder. "Look, just because I sit behind a desk all day does not mean your job is harder than mine." Honestly, Taystee was just being biased. It was very much clear that digging a hole for hours was a harder job.

"As a matter of fact, it does."

"You dig a hole for four hours and tell us if your job is harder," Janae shot back. "And in the hot ass sun, in some heavy ass boots," Aaliyah adds, Janae and Cindy nodding in agreement with her.
"Do you know how complicated phones have gotten since we've been inside?" Taystee questions, still thinking hers was harder.

"As complicated as findin' chargers for them?" Alison adds, looking at the food on her spoon.

"I'm tryin'. Caputo's got a different brand going on. And Aaliyah, you really gotta tell yo dad to chill. Mr. Caputo came back lookin' like he was gonna shit his pants," Taystee said. Aaliyah and Janae both chuckled hearing that. "See now that makes me even more interested. T, you find that pic of her dad yet?" Cindy asked, getting a look of disgust from Aaliyah.

"Oh yeah, I printed it. Man he is fine as hell. You was right." Taystee slid over a folded paper to Cindy. Aaliyah's mouth dropped, "You looked up my father?" Cindy opened up the pic and gaped, "Nah, what? No way. Why Liyah's whole family fine as hell? Now I'm curious what the momma look like. She's gotta be at least a nine outta ten." Cindy comments, showing Alison the picture.

"Oh she is, trust me. I seen a family portrait on the internet. Aaliyah, you had an emo faze?" Aaliyah face-palmed once again that day, Janae rubbing her back with a snicker. This whole situation was just hilarious. "What her momma look like?" Cindy asks, slipping the picture in the waistband of her khakis. "She kinda look like Angelina Jolie, but british." Taystee answered.

"Okay, can we not discuss my family's looks during lunch? I think I'm gonna be sick." Aaliyah states as Poussey sits down. Janae chuckles, pressing a kiss to Aaliyah's cheek. "There go my girl. P, please tell these bitches that my job is just as hard as diggin' a ditch."

"It's not."

"Ah!" Janae and Cindy did their little handshake, glad they won the debate cause it was true.

"Look, why y'all tryin' beat up Judy King?" Poussey asks, getting straight to the point.

"Cause she racist." Janae said even though that wasn't the real reason. She just didn't like Judy for that racist puppet show shit she did. Aaliyah didn't really care for Judy anymore but she always took Janae's side. So if Janae didn't like Judy. Neither did she.

"Why would we beat up an old white lady?" Cindy scoffs. "One pop and she down."

"And it would ruin the photo," Alison adds.

"Ain't nobody trying to beat down Judy King," Taystee said. Aaliyah chuckles, "Who told you that?"

"She did. She told me y'all chased her down the hallway, and Crazy Eyes was singing like a murder doll." Whilst that was true, Judy was definitely overreacting. "Wait, what photo? What are you-"

"We're trying to get a picture," Aaliyah states, still amused of the situation. "A picture of what?" P was still confused. "Of Judy King," Alison added. Poussey raised a brow, looking at them for confirmation, "That's it? Just a picture?" Aaliyah nods, "Just a picture."

Ouija walked over to their table, confusing the girls a bit. She tossed Aaliyah a bag of ice, "There you go mamas. Ice them ribs, okay?" Aaliyah smiles gratefully, "Thank you sweets, 'preciate it."

"I gotchu mamas. Lemme know if you need anything else." Aaliyah nods and Ouija walks away. The girls turn to Liyah with raised brows whilst she simply, pulled up her shirt to lay the ice on her wrapped ribs. She looks up, noticing the stares. "What?"

"You friends with the Spanish girls now?" Taystee questions in confusion. She honestly hadn't been keeping up with Aaliyah much so she was a little lost. She just knew Liyah got into it with the white girls and got two bruised ribs.
"Mhm, guess so. That one right there calls her 'mamas'." Janae's smiles sarcastically, clearly jealous.

"First of all, she's straight. No need to feel threatened. And no, we just have common interests. Though the one that Janae is so jealous of, is my friend." Liyah smiles, patting Janae's hand as she rolled her eyes.

"You know they be sellin' that shit, right?" Poussey spoke up, knowing Aaliyah didn't like drugs.

Aaliyah hummed. Of course she knew. She wasn't stupid. She knew how they operated. Plus, Maria offered her a place, but she declined. As long as they kept that shit away from her, she didn't care. "I know. But, that's their business. They wanna sell, let them. If they get caught, that's on them. It's not any of my business."

"She make a good point. And we ain't ones to judge. We sold that shit once too," Cindy said, making a good point.

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Well the backhoe thing was finally fixed, so they basically did all that work for nothing. Aaliyah dropped her shovel, tossing her helmet into the wheelbarrow. "Man, oh, man, I'm gonna be so fucking sore tomorrow." Cindy sucks her teeth, "I gotta start exercising." Aaliyah stretched her arms before wrapping her left one around Janae. "I exercise and I still feel like my body was thrown around a million times. It's like when Janae makes me run extra laps," Aaliyah complained.

"Man, did you see how fast that thing took dirt out a hole." Alison points out. "I know," Cindy agreed. "Like, whoosh. Man, I feel like an auto worker in Detroit after the robots came."

"Like, "Oh, shit, I'm an autoworker and now I'm out of a job"? Or like, "Yay! The robots are here to do this shitty, horrible autoworker work. Thank God"?" Janae added. They stopped, Cindy stretching her neck as Alison hummed, thinking of an answer. That's when Cindy noticed Judy King suddenly running towards her with a weird creepy grin. "Uh, why is she running at me like that?"

"Whoa." Aaliyah pulled Janae back just as Judy King wraps her arms around Cindy's neck, connecting their lips. Cindy pulled away, blabbering in shock, "Ah! What the fuck was that for?" Aaliyah laughed, noticing Poussey run over from the porta potties. "That was dope."

"Did you get it? Let me see?" Judy goes to see the phone from Poussey.

"Damn, she taste like strawberry," Cindy mumbles.

Judy takes the phone, "Oh yeah. Come on." She shows the picture to Cindy. "All right, the second one is a winner. Don't you think?" Cindy was just too much in shock. "Huh? What?"

Janae and Aaliyah lean in to see the picture, Cindy snapping out of her trance. "Look, what do you think? Interracial lesbian love behind bars, okay." Aaliyah gaped, looking between Judy and Cindy. "We're gonna hold out for the big bucks, ladies, you know? Make the rags fight over it. All right, you did so good." Judy pats Cindy's shoulders with a smile.

Janae smiles, realizing they're gonna make big bucks off of that so she was good. Aaliyah didn't necessarily need it, but who was she to pass up on it?

"My momma gonna see me kissing a white woman."

Aaliyah grins, putting an arm around Janae's shoulders. "My day just gets better and better.

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Janae walked into Aaliyah's bunk, sitting down on the bed, she pulled Aaliyahs book down and pulled her ear buds off. She smiled softly, "Can you do my hair, please?" Aaliyah chuckles, nodding. She put the book away and paused the iPod. "It's gettin' long innit?" Janae nods as Liyah got up and grabbed some stuff. "As much as I loved the short hair. I'm really diggin' the longer hair," Aaliyah said, sitting back down.

Janae sat in between her legs, pulling them around her torso. "I could say the same for you. I wasn't a huge fan of your short bangs. You looked like Courteney Cox from Scream three." Aaliyah hits Janae's shoulder in offense. "That's so mean. They looked nothing like that." Janae laughed in response. "But I won't lie, I wasn't a fan either. It's why I changed them. Now they're cute."

"So, you gonna tell me what you were doing the other night? Cause I heard you left the party with Chapman and suddenly, the next day she's bleeding on the arm." Janae said. Of course she figured it out. It did technically add up. I mean suddenly she gets into a fight because of Chapman's group, and then she befriends the Spanish girls, and Chapman won't even look her in the eyes now.

"You caught me." Liyah mumbled, deciding to do a middle part on Janae's hair. "Look, I was upset...and I'm sure you know I can get a little carried away." Janae turned to look at her, giving her a knowing look. Liyah huffed, turning Janae's head back. "The Spanish girls wanted my help with something cause they figured I would want some revenge for Chapman starting the whole race war and being a partial cause of my fucked up ribs."

"So you cut her? That's not so bad," Janae shrugged.

"Oh dear no. We branded her." Janae furrowed her brows, turning to look at her again. "What do you mean by that?" Aaliyah pursed her lips. "Chapman wanted to put labels on us. Group us all together like we're the bad people here. So, we put a label on her. We put...the Nazi label on her. We burned it onto her with a poker. It's why she was bleeding yesterday. Without proper treatment, it'll bleed a lot."

"That's...fucking insane." Was all Janae said.

Aaliyah looked down with a small frown, the smallest part of her did kinda regret it, but she didn't tolerate that shit. "You don't think I'm like insane right? Cause I swear I'm not..I think? I just have problems controlling myself. And I fucking hate racists. I get angry and I can't stop myself-" she was cut off when Janae pressed their lips together. She pulled away slowly, her forehead pressed against Liyah's. "Actually, I think it was kinda hot." She breathed out.

"You do?"

Janae nods with a grin, pushing the stuff off the bed, she straddled Aaliyah's lap. "I am so fucking in love with you."

She noticed Aaliyah's hesitancy to say it back. "It's okay. You don't have to say it back until you're ready. I just want you to know that I love you, and your family, and everything that comes with you. You're the very reason I get up in the morning. I wanna spend the rest of my life with you. And if that's too much for you, I get it. You don't have to be ready to say it back."

Aaliyah couldn't fight her smile. She rubbed Janae's waist, "It's not too much. And as much as I wanna say it back, I'm just scared, you know?"

Janae nods slowly, her thumb running down Aaliyah's cheek. "I know, I'll wait. I'll wait as long as it takes."

"You're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

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"A surprising development in the Judy King saga. This photo, leaked from inside Litchfield Correctional Facility, catches the Queen of Cuisine in a romantic embrace with an African-American inmate." Suzanne cheered at the news. Currently the groups of Poussey, Soso, Taystee, Cindy, Suzanne, Janae, and Aaliyah were all sitting around the table watching the news. The picture P took, all over the news with odd headlines.

"This undermines the allegations of racism that have been swirling since the discovery of an offensive 1983 access video. The identity of the inmate remains unknown." They all laughed again, meanwhile Cindy didn't seem so happy about this anymore. "Okay, y'all, so what y'all gonna do with y'all cash money?" Taystee asks.

Aaliyah leaned back in her chair, holding some ice on her ribs. They were healing and would most likely be better in a few days. "Yo, imma take my girl to Amsterdam." Poussey says. Aaliyah didn't really know what she was gonna do. Suzanne adds in, "Rent a bounce house in the shape of a frog." That would be quite neat.

"I'm gon' follow D'Angelo around like them white people be following that band Phish, where they spell the word 'fish' wrong." Taystee adds. "What about you, Watson?"

Janae puts a hand over Aaliyah, "Oh, you know. Probably spend most of it on rims." Taystee frowns, not getting that it was a joke. Janae turns, winking at Suzanne. Taystee and Suzanne laugh, starting to get it. "Yo, Liyah, what you gonna do?" Taystee asks towards the girl who had been quiet most of the time. Her mind was just too focused on Janae's confession earlier. She felt guilty about not being able to say it back.

Janae nudges the girl, pulling her out of her trance. "Hmm?" Janae smiles, "What you gonna do with your money?" Aaliyah hums, turning to look at the group. "Get two front row tickets to Beyoncé," Aaliyah shrugs. Janae grins, pressing a kiss to her fluffy head of hair. "I personally, would get tickets to Taylor Swift or Lana Del Rey instead," Soso says, getting a look from everyone, even Suzanne.

"I'm gonna shut up now." Brook mumbled, pulling her lips into a firm line.

"Y'all, we ain't think this shit through." Cindy spoke up. Janae looked back at her. "Man, stop cryin' about it already."

"You was so hyped about being famous and-"

Cindy pulled the lollipop from her mouth, quick to cut T off. "Okay, first of all, some brown puffs are famous. Not me." She corrects, leaning forward. "And two, how do you think this is gonna play upstairs?"

"Are you talking about...God?" Suzanne questions nervously.

"I'm talkin' about Caputo," Cindy states.

"Yo, don't even worry about it, man. We got Judy on our side. And Aaliyah's dad could scare him again." Poussey reassures, pointing at Liyah who nods in reply. "Y'all still ain't gettin' it, are you? She used us. Now, she out there lookin' post-racial as shit, and I'm about to get a boot up my black ass." Cindy leaned back in her chair with a frown.

Suzanne looks up at the television. "Lesbians..." she looks towards Poussey and Soso, pointing at them, "Am I right?" They both share a look before growing smiles.

Suzanne went to point at Janae and Aaliyah until Janae slapped her hand away. "No, we not doin' this. Let's go." Janae grabbed Liyah's hand, pulling the girl up and dragging her out of the TV room.

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"P, you in here?" Aaliyah questions, walking into the library. "Look if y'all are doin' it, I can come back another time." Poussey and Soso both pop out from behind the bookshelf, all disheveled. "Sorry. Did you need somethin'?" Poussey asked, wiping her mouth. Aaliyah squinted her eyes, "Uh, yeah. But if I'm interrupting, I can totally leave."

"No, it's okay. We were just finishing up." Soso mumbled, sitting on the table.

"Right. Uhm, anyways, I just wanted to return this to you. I finished it last night." Aaliyah said, passing the book to Poussey. "Oh thanks. Did you want another one? I can find you some good ones in here." Poussey said, putting the book on the cart.

"Yeah sure. Do you have any Stephen King books? My brother loves Stephen King. He actually got to meet him in person for his birthday." Aaliyah chuckles softly, sitting on the table. "Oh shit really? That's cool. I think I got a few in the back. I'll go grab 'em." Poussey said, leaving Soso and Aaliyah to sit in silence.

"Hey uh, Aaliyah- or I mean, is it okay for me to call you that? I just noticed everyone calls you that." Soso chuckled awkwardly. Aaliyah turned to look at her, "Sure." Soso smiled, feeling like that was progress. "I just wanted to say thank you."

Aaliyah looked at her in confusion, "for what?"

"Well, for looking after me, you know, making sure I didn't die and helping me shower. I mean you really didn't have to, so thank you, for everything. If you didn't, I probably wouldn't be here, or with P." Brook said with a grateful smile, her hands intertwined together.

"You're welcome." Aaliyah spoke softly before looking away just as Poussey came over holding four books in her hands. "Okay, I found two Stephen King books and two more horror books I think you'll like. We got It, The Shining, Coraline, and Something Wicked This Way Comes." She passed Aaliyah the books who took them gratefully.

"Thank you, sweets. Ya know, I would've never even read a book after I graduated had my brother not dragged me to the library all the time." Aaliyah said, flipping through the books to make sure no pages were missing. Luckily nobody really touched the horror section. "Oh really? Is he like a writer or something?" Poussey asked, sitting down next to Soso.

"No, he was studying to become a lawyer and he wanted to keep me far away from our home situation so it was kinda a distraction for both of us. Now that I look back at it, I'm kinda grateful he dragged me along. If he hadn't I probably would've gotten locked up a lot sooner." Aaliyah smiled to herself as the memories. Man did she miss spending time with her brother.

"Well that's nice of him," Soso says with a warm smile.

"You don't talk about your family a lot. Or maybe you do, just not to me," Poussey chuckles. Aaliyah pursed her lips, "I'll talk about them now then. If you have time of course. I know I do. I got out of work today courtesy of injury." Aaliyah grinned, patting her thighs. "Yeah I got time."

"Mm, my brother, he moved in when he was like seven cause his bio dad didn't want him so my dad took him in right. And he used to be a pain in my ass. He makes me feel like the rebellious one but really it was him. This lad, came home one night from a party, wasted and covered in glitter. And you know what he does? He pulled off my duvet to wipe the glitter off and throws up all over my room. I had to get a whole new bed and duvet." Poussey and Soso both laugh at the story.

"That's so gross but so funny," Soso chuckles, laying her head on Poussey's shoulder.

"Oh that's not even the half of it. One weekend when my dad had to leave for a business trip and my mum was out shaggin' some bloke. He messages the entire school and throws a fucking party at our house, which mind you, we live in a mansion and my dad is like famous. So of course our address gets leaked and the paparazzi show up and he invites them in to party. My dad had to fly back from Vegas that exact night and guess what?"

"What happened?" Poussey asked, invested in the story.

"I'm the one who gets in trouble!" Poussey and Soso shared looks, both start laughing their asses off. "The little shit pins the whole party on me. I was like fifteen with no friends." That makes them laugh more, almost losing breath at how much they were laughing. "I'm literally crying. That's the funniest thing I've heard all day." Brook said, wiping her tears.

"When I get out, I gotta meet this brother of yours, he sounds hella cool." Poussey expressed with a laugh.

"Oh I'm sure he'd love you."

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a/n: i HAD to get in some poussey and liyah time before yk what 💔

janae finally confessed 🥲 i didn't expect to write it this early but there's gonna be so much going on in season five, it'll be hard to fit a confession in which is why i did it right now 🤍 when aaliyah finally says it, it's gonna be so cuteee

IN MY HEAD JANAE AND AALIYAH WENT TO THE RENAISSANCE TOUR AND GOT THEM FRONT ROW SEATS 🤞

y'all janaes middle part had me going crazy 😭😭 it was my favorite look of hers ngl

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(a tease to my next book bc im so excited! it's gonna be a carol denning book and its an AU of this one!)

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