“Whoa,” said Liz. “Hold it, Chase. Don’t get involved.”

Chase looked at her. “Not get volved. Just punch bad girls some.”

Louise stood up as well, brimming with excitement. “You...you mean it? You’re really gonna punch ‘em?! Ah’d wager you’ll need someone to hold ‘em too, won’t you?”

“That’d be a mistake, Chase,” said Liz. “Prison ain’t any place for heroes. Ah suggest you just sit down an’ finish your fish sticks.”

Chase looked down at her tray and frowned. “Not like fish stick.” Maybe Liz was right, maybe Chase shouldn’t have gotten involved. But she was frustrated. Her soul was still aching from what Miss Cha had told her. Maybe she couldn’t do anything about that situation, but she felt like she had to do something about something. And somehow she just felt like she’d be damned if she’d let Olivia take the only good part of this lunch away from Irene. She looked back at Liz. “Why not punch? You say should be tough.”

“That’s true, in prison you gotta look tough,” said Liz. “But you also gotta mind your own business. Fight your own fights.”

Chase didn’t understand. “That why want punch Liv. Want fight be mine.”

Liz sighed. “Look, I unnerstand wantin’ to scrap, but you won’t last long in here if you go around making enemies you don’t hafta.”

This gave Chase pause. She wouldn’t last long in here? Alicia’s face came to mind, and she banished the image as an icy dagger pierced her chest. She had to make this last. There was nothing for her to go back to anymore, after all. All she had was this place, this group of people, and if she didn’t make it work...she’d have absolutely nothing at all.

Slowly, she sat back down.

“Aw,” said Louise, disappointed.

“Good,” said Liz, relieved. “Okay. Just calm down and eat them fish sticks. If you dip ‘em in the tartar sauce they ain’t so bad.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the cafeteria, Irene’s hand closed around her jell-o cup. “You really want it?” she snarled, “Fine. Have it!” She chucked the jell-o cup at Angel, hitting her in the face. Red, wiggly jell-o splattered all over her.

“Gah! Fffu-” started Angel, but before she could finish her expletive, Irene had leapt up out of her chair and swung a high kick up against the underside of Angel’s chin. She fell on her back on the cafeteria floor.

Irene picked up her plastic spoon, the only eating utensil prisoners of H-Block were permitted, and pounced on top of Angel, gouging it down at her eye. Before she could make contact, however, Crystal grabbed her under her arms and pulled her off.

“Now, now. That wasn’t necessary,” said Olivia sweetly. Irene struggled in Crystal’s grip. “Is that any way to behave when we’re coming to you, hands open in friendship?” She held out her hand. “May I have that spoon?”

“C...come take it,” Irene growled.

“Oh dear. That sounded like a threat,” Olivia commented. She looked at Crystal, and a wordless command was issued. Crystal grabbed Irene’s wrist and efficiently twisted her arm behind her back.

“Aaaah!” cried Irene. Almost immediately there was a clatter as the spoon hit the floor, although Crystal did not relax her grip. “Aaaowww! Fuck!” She tossed an insult over her shoulder. “Fucking...fuck you, wasicu whore!”

Crystal had no reaction to her captive’s words. She kicked the fallen spoon, making it skitter across the floor and come to rest at Olivia’s feet.

Angel stood and brushed the jell-o off herself as best she could. “I’ll kill you,” she told Irene. But she didn’t look mad. Rather, she looked dangerously excited. Thrilled to have an excuse. “You’re dead! Ohhh ho ho, you’re dead now...”

But Olivia stopped her with another raised hand before the latina could make a move. She crouched down to pick up the spoon, then had an idea.

“You seem upset, Irene,” she said. She picked up discarded jell-o cup and peeled off the foil lid. After crumpling it up, she placed it in the spoon and stood back up. “Just to show you there’s no hard feelings...here. You can have your jell-o back.”

A spark of excitement glittered in Angel’s eyes. “Yeah! Yeah. Open wide. Open wide, bitch!”

Irene spit on Olivia. Crystal twisted her arm further. “Aaaaaah!”

“Crystal will let you go. She’ll make the pain stop. All you need to do is accept my kind gesture,” said Olivia calmly. She moved the spoon closer to Irene’s mouth. “Now then, here comes the airplane! Ahhh…”

But before the airplane could complete its approach, a food tray flew through the air and hit Olivia in the wrist of her outstretched hand. “Ow!” she cried, dropping the spoon. She clutched her wrist and looked wildly in the direction from which the tray came.

There was Chase, calmly walking toward them. “You stop that.”

Olivia was in complete disbelief. “You…you hit me!” she said. She tested her wrist. “It, it hurts! If you broke it-”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Not broke. Not throw that hard,” Chase told her. “Not want hurt Liv, just want Liv leave Reen lone.”

Olivia clenched her teeth for a moment, then composed herself. She let go of her wrist and gave the disarming grin she’d used on Chase before, of a harmless, carefree, slightly airheaded girl. “Whoa, Chase. You’re making, like, a meeeegggaaa misunderstanding. Us and Irene are friends! We’re just goofing around. Right, Irene?”

Irene hesitated, then told Chase, “I don’t need any help from you.”

Chase looked between Olivia and Irene, considering this. Then, she made up her mind and gave Olivia a glare. “You not friend. Friend not make friend eat tin.”

Olivia laughed. “Yeah, well, maybe, but why do you care? Irene’s been a bitch to you too. Just go sit down.” She turned up her nose and gave Chase a haughty look. “You’re cool with us, Chase. We like you. For the time being. You don’t want to ruin that, do you?”

Chase shook her head. “Take Big Hunk, shame on me. Take jell from Reen, get mad and throw things.”

Irene saw her chance with Olivia’s gang distracted. Whop! She elbowed Crystal in the stomach, squirmed out of her loosened grip, then whirled around to throw a haymaker with her left fist.

But Crystal’s face wasn’t where she expected it to be. The frigid blonde had already recovered from the hit and gone low, sweeping a leg at Irene’s ankles. She connected, sending Irene sprawling to the floor.

“Oh, she’s dead now,” said Angel, eyes burning with excitement, a sadistic grin cracking her face open like an egg. That feeling of hot blood and desire for action which Chase sensed radiating from her earlier was flaring even hotter now, as battle appeared imminent. A warning went off in Chase’s head, the same sense of danger she got when she cooked over an open fire. That commonplace tingle in the back of her skull that said if she got any closer, she could be burned. But this was no flame. It was just an ordinary girl.

“She’s dead,” Angel repeated. Her voice sounded rapturous as she said it, almost sensual.

Suddenly, Louise grabbed Angel from behind. “I got this’un, Chase! I got her!” To Angel, she said, “Wow, you’re really warm.”

“Hey! Get off me, freak!” shouted Angel, struggling to get away. But Chase knew how viselike Louise’s grip was. Once you were in it, you wouldn’t get out under your own power.

The hillbilly sniffed at Angel, taking a deep whiff of her cheek. “And your blood’s so strong...It really is that strong…” She sighed and pressed her ear against the side of her neck, closing her eyes contentedly. “Even you gotta be able to hear it, Chase. Even you…”

“Oh god…” said Molly, backing away from the group. She was the opposite of Angel; the confrontation seemed to frighten her. “Stop it, you guys.”

“Go ahead, Chase. Beat the stuffin’ out o’ her,” encouraged Louise. “Spill that blood. I wanna see how it tast-”

Angel was not going to sit around and let that happen. Her arms still held by the taller girl, she flipped her legs up and knotted them around Louise’s neck in a fierce chokehold. “I SAID, let go of me, freak!” she said gleefully. “Or do you wanna die too?!”

As Chase dashed forward to help, Crystal intercepted her, something shiny in her hand. It slashed at Chase’s torso, causing her to leap back in surprise. A...blade?!

“Where you get knife?” asked Chase, raising her guard. “Thought those not rules.”

“Resourcefulness was part of my training. Even a makeshift weapon can give one a critical advantage,” said Crystal. “Back when they still let H-Block girls work jobs, I kept quite busy in the metal shop.”

She stabbed at Chase with eye-popping speed. Chase barely managed to sidestep it, and when she did, a horizontal, waist level slash was already coming her way. This girl was fast!

Chase leapt over the blade’s arc and spun a jump kick at Crystal’s head. To her astonishment, Crystal blocked rigidly with her forearm. The girl slightly pursed her lips in pain, but notably did not give an inch under the force of the blow. Strong, too. In both body and mind.

Chase pushed off her to land with some distance between them, but to her surprise Crystal had already launched her next attack: three metal darts flung out of the sleeve of her prison jumpsuit, aimed at the floor where Chase was about to land.

Two ‘cling’ sounds as the darts clashed against the cement. One ‘shunk’ and burst of pain as the third pierced Chase’s foot.

Chase dropped to one knee. It had been a while since an opponent had genuinely hurt her in battle beyond just bruises. Still though, this was an opportunity. Now she had a weapon of her own, even if it was a small one.

Just as Chase yanked the dart out of herself, however, a male voice rang out, along with the clomping of boots on cement. “Break it up! Break it up!” Four guards were rushing over from the place they’d been standing by the door.

“Like hell-” began Angel, squeezing Louise tighter.

“No! Let her go! I don’t want you in solitary. We might need you here,” Olivia hissed urgently.

“But! But! No!” Angel shouted in frustration. She smelled blood, dammit!

Olivia raised an eyebrow. She wasn’t accustomed to being disobeyed. “Now, Angel.”

Angel hesitated. The guards were almost there. With a moan of frustration, she loosened her legs’ deadly grip. Louise let go of her in return, and the two separated.

“What the fuck is going on here?!” demanded a guard, as the posse arrived. “You all wanna get thrown in the hole?”

“Just some, like, STUPID drama,” said Olivia, rolling her eyes in a ‘girls will be girls’ kind of way. “We’re over it. Aren’t we, you guys?”

“Yes,” said Crystal.

“...Yeah,” said Irene, picking herself up off the floor.

The guards exchanged a look, surprised and frankly relieved that the fight was broken up so easily. They sure as hell didn’t want to get caught in the middle of an H-Block catfight. “Damn right you are,” said one of them gruffly.

Olivia requested that she and her group be escorted back to H-Block. After casting a cold, meaningful look in Chase’s direction, she was gone, leaving Chase, Louise and Irene alone.

“You oh kay, Reen?” Chase asked Irene.

Irene glared at her. “God dammit. I wish you would have just left me alone. I don’t need to be saved by you.”

Chase looked surprised. “What? But Liv and gang were four. Reen just one. Them want hurt Reen.”

“Better to get my ass beat than to look weak in front of the whole block,” said Irene angrily. “At least that way I’d show I can take anything those bitches dish out. Instead, you made me look like I can’t look out for myself. I don’t know why you decided to do that, but from now on, just stay the hell away from me.” With that, she stormed off.

Chase watched her leave, bewildered. Louise walked over to her, brushing a sheaf of her mussed hair over her shoulder. “Dangit. Ah almost had her. Ten seconds more’n she woulda tapped out.”

The sound of footsteps heralded the arrival of Liz, carrying her empty lunch tray. “See what ah mean?” she asked. “All that work, an’ for what? Not even a thank you. Mindin’ your own business is the way it’s done in here, an’ to do any more is exercise and futility.”

Across the cafeteria, Irene dumped what was left of her lunch in the trash, then tossed her own tray on the pile of dirties. “Maybe you right…” said Chase.

Louise looked down at Chase’s foot, which was now surrounded by a puddle of bright crimson. “Tittysplinters, Chase! You’re bleedin’ like crazy. You better go to the med ward,” said Louise.

Chase blinked and looked down at her foot. “Oh. Yes.”