Chase was kept in solitary confinement for two days as a result of the scuffle: half of Liz's four, since security footage showed that Liz was the one who started it. During this period of isolation, Chase had plenty of time to think about her situation. Andrea also squeezed in a visit to reprimand her.
“Sorry,” said Chase. She was sitting on the floor of the cell, hugging her orange-clad knees. This time she had a bed. Andrea had asked Chase to sit with her on it, but Chase declined, so Andrea sat there alone. “But need fight back. Not want look weak.”
Andrea sighed. “I guess I understand that.” She'd never been in prison with other inmates, but she had some idea of the way things worked. “But now that you've proven yourself, you don't need to get in any more trouble in the future, right?”
“Yes...” said Chase. Somehow, the words 'the future' gave her pause. The future? Was that this place? Alicia's face flashed in her mind.
“What is it?” asked Andrea.
Chase looked up at her, then down at the floor. “Nothing...”
“I mean, you can fight a little bit, everybody fights some. Just don't be crazy about it, that's all.”
“It not that.”
“Then what?”
Chase fidgeted with her thumbs. What did she want to say? Well, she knew. Or she thought she did, but she hesitated to say it to Miss Cha, after all she'd done for her.
“Not sure...” said Chase slowly. She could tell Miss Cha. She was her counselor, after all. She'd always told Chase that Chase could tell her anything. “Not sure if want stay here.”
Andrea's face fell. “Oh...I see.”
“Not sure if want stay. See girls like me, yes, girls like me. But not sure if want,” said Chase. She looked at Andrea. “Miss Leash and Lin and Cait. Miss cheer. Am bad for want to be cheer. Know that. But hurt too bad to be gone.”
Andrea calmly assessed the situation. She couldn't lose Chase now. They were almost ready to transfer her to Washington. She had to tighten her grip on Chase yet again. Just one more time would be enough. Once she was in Washington, underground, at HQ, then it didn’t matter. Even Chase couldn’t escape from there.
“I understand,” she said gently. “You know, you’re allowed to have visitors here.”
Chase was stunned. “AM?!”
“Maybe Alicia could come visit you. Would you like that?”
Suddenly Chase was full of life, bearing a grin so genuine and so filled with joy that it was heartbreaking. “Would LOVE! Would LOVE see Leash!”
“Alright, then I'll see what I can do,” lied Andrea. “In the meantime, be good, okay?”
“Yes! Will! Will!”
Chase wasn't sure what to expect upon returning to H-Block. She had gotten in a fight, and she felt she probably looked pretty impressive in it. She probably proved herself to be tough. Did that mean the others would be her friends now? Was she part of their 'squad'? She didn't know.
They didn't exactly give her a warm welcome, with hugs and slaps on the back and all. Mostly, they just cast looks in her direction, the same way they had before. But there was a slight difference. There wasn't that curiosity in their eyes anymore. They now had some idea of what Chase was capable of, and the make of girl she was. Now, they looked at her for different reasons. To see what she’d do, observe who she talked to, how she would fit into the power dynamic of their little society. Because she wasn't nobody, Chase. She could be a strong ally or a powerful enemy, depending on who got to her first (aside from Liz, who had technically gotten to her first but hadn’t made a great first impression and wouldn't be a factor for a couple days) and how they played their hand.
As it turned out, the first person to get to her was the second-newest girl in H-Block.
“Campbell. Chase Campbell,” said a disbelieving female voice from one of the open cells as Chase walked past it.
Chase looked in, and was startled by who she saw. A girl was standing up from her bed: a tall girl, with wavy brown hair, a wisp of a smile and dark, ringed, tired eyes. Recognizing the girl instantly, she leapt back from the cell door and raised her fists.
“When ah saw you out here fightin' and flippin' around, ah thought mah eyes were playin' me a shenanigan,” said Louise calmly. She looked at Chase's fists, and laughed. “No need fer all that. Ah ain't interested in hurtin' ya, now that ah know our feud was a lotta hogwash. Fact is ah was gonna help ya, ah was gonna hold that Powell down so you could hit her. Ah woulda loved ta hold her down...she woulda struggled real nice...” She began to get a faraway look in her eyes, but she shook her head and reached her point. “But the guards broke it up too fast for that.”
Chase's head was spinning. She lowered her fists. “What you...why you here?”
“Me an' Mary Rose were pulverizing some girl an' she went an' told on us,” said Louise. “Mary Rose said she were innocent, an' you know how she is, with them eyes o' hers an' all. She pinned the whole thing on me, but ah didn't do nothin'. Ah just held her down...”
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“So you...you not want fight?” asked Chase. That was good. She didn't want to go back in the hole. She also knew, from past experience, that Louise could do a lot of damage if she wanted to. Chase won the first time, and would probably win again, but the resultant hospital stay would be longer than any time Chase would have to spend in solitary.
“Yeah, that's right,” said Louise. She stepped closer to Chase. “Chase, ah know what a killer you are. Mary Rose, Junie Grievance, Lila Jean, ah tried to tell 'em but they just don't get it.” She took Chase's hands into her own. No, more accurately, her wrists. Flipping them over, Louise gently traced her thumbs over the veins there. “Cause they ain't tasted your blood, Chase. They ain't tasted how strong it is. They got no idea.”
Nervously, Chase pulled her hands away. “Ah'll have your back in here if you have mah back,” continued Louise. “Personally ah don't trust none of these crazy bitches far as ah can throw 'em. Ah want somebody ah'm fermiliar with in mah corner. An' when you fight with somebody...ah wanna hold 'em down for you. Ah bet you could do a lot of damage to somebody, if they was held down for ya...” She positively quivered with excitement as she said this last part.
Chase wasn't sure if she trusted Louise either, and she also wasn't planning on getting into any more fights any time soon, but, well, she was a familiar face. Besides, she was here to make friends, wasn't she?
“Okay,” said Chase with a smile. “Us have backs.”
“Good,” said Louise, looking relieved. “That's real good.”
As Chase moved on toward her cell, she noticed that Olivia had a couple more girls around her now in addition to Crystal: a latina and a girl with highlighted brown hair, short with bangs falling over one of her eyes.
“Hey, Chase, right?”
Chase looked away from Olivia's group and saw that the baseball-cap-wearing girl was standing before her.
“Oh. Yes!” said Chase. “Who you?”
“Heidi,” said the girl. “Looked like you were really kicking Liz's ass before the guards broke it up.”
Chase shook her head. “No, just kick her face.”
Heidi laughed. “Yeah, well, she had it coming.” She clapped Chase on the shoulder as she walked past her to the door. “Let me know if you're gonna kick anybody else's face. I could use the entertainment. TV gets pretty old after a while. Hell, I might just be able to recommend some people to you. See ya.”
As Chase watched her leave, the next person saw their turn to hail her. “You're back,” said Sisler, sitting at the card table. She split her deck in two and performed a bridge shuffle. “Care to join me for a game of cards?”
Chase smiled. Maybe her fight really did warm the others up to her. “Okay!” she said, sitting down. “Am Chase!”
“Hello, Chase. Sisler,” said the girl. “What's your game of choice? Poker? Cribbage?”
Chase thought back to a memory of sitting in a cave with Lindsey, Alicia and a sasquatch. “Go Fish,” she said.
Sisler looked at her as if she might be joking, then smiled. “Alright then. Go Fish it is.”
She finished shuffling, then began dealing out the cards. “I'm happy you decided to join me,” she said. “You can learn a lot of things about a person over a hand of cards.”
“That good,” said Chase, as the girls picked up their hands. “Want make lots friends while here.”
“Do you, now?” asked Sisler, amused. She looked at her hand, selected a pair of twos, and laid them down. Casually, she asked, “You got off to a bad start, didn't you? Why did you and Liz get in a fight?”
“Not know,” said Chase. Seeing Sisler lay down a pair to start the game, Chase remembered she could do that too. She laid down a pair of eights. “Think Liz bored. Plus, Liz say must look tough for jail girls.”
“Well, you definitely did that. Everybody's talking about you.”
Chase looked up. “Really? That great! What they say?”
“You can go first.”
“That great too!” said Chase, looking back down at her hand. “Got king?”
“Nope,” said Sisler. She paused before returning to Chase's original question. “They're all rather curious about you. Curious and impressed. Brianna and Heidi were vocally amused by the whole thing, as you might recall. And I can tell you're on Olivia's radar too, although she hasn't come out and said it. Do you have any aces?”
A lucky guess. Chase handed her an ace. Sisler went on. “But I'd rather not go too into it right off the bat, Chase. Information is a precious commodity in here. A commodity I'm experienced in dealing with. I feel rude if I'm the only one speaking, you see. Perhaps if you tell me more about yourself, first, we can establish a...proper rapport?”
Most of this went over Chase's head, but she got the idea. “Okay. What want know?”
“Well, tell me about yourself,” said Sisler. “Obviously you're not a native English speaker, so where are you from? I'm sure you have an interesting story.”
Chase wondered if she should lie, but decided the need for that had passed. She had dropped the illusion of fitting into normal society. “From woods,” she said. “Have two?”
“Go Fish. Woods?” asked Sisler. “What woods? In what country?”
“Woods in this one. By Sunnycrest.”
Sisler looked at Chase from a different perspective. “A feral child,” she said, fascinated. “And what did you do to end up here?”
Chase rearranged her hand, hesitating with her response. “Eat people.”
“You what?”
“Eat people. Lots people,” said Chase. Misinterpreting Sisler's surprised expression, Chase decided to explain further. “Eat people is bad thing to do.”
Sisler chuckled. “Yes, well, we can't all be saints, I suppose. Have any queens?”
While they played, Sisler got a bit more background information about Chase, including how she knew Louise, who she had noticed Chase speaking with earlier. Chase's story was so wild that Sisler wasn't sure how much she really believed, although she was sure there was some truth amid the exaggerations.
“A cheerleader, eh?” said Sisler, bemused. She had many more pairs than Chase, by this point, and only one card in her hand. “You know, that seems fitting. You seem like just the type.”
Chase smiled and nodded happily. “Thanks, Sis. Love cheer much. What bout you, why Sis kill?”
Sisler looked at Chase, then back down at her hand. “Why don't I answer that one another time, Chase?” she asked. “It’s not a particularly interesting tale. You’ve heard one serial killer’s life story, you’ve heard them all. What you've told me is very informative, and I do owe you some answers, but I don't think you want to waste your questions on something like that, do you?”
Chase looked confused. “Yes! If Sis is friend then want know Sis!”
“Hmm? But we aren’t friends, Chase.”
“Are not?” Chase asked, crestfallen.
“Not yet, I mean,” said Sisler. “I just met you, after all. People in here don’t trust easily, Chase. I recommend you follow our lead. For now, I’m just someone you play cards with. Speaking of which, I’ll take that four, if you don’t mind.”
Chase blinked. “Aw,” she said sadly, handing her four over.
Sisler laid her last pair down and said, “Good game.” She gave Chase a smile. “When you think of something you really want to know, come back. I know some games that are a lot more fun.”