Free In Litchfield - Nicky Nichols x female oc (OITNB)

Chapter One

The girl took care of herself, she had to give her at least that. Her voice may have been annoying as fuck, a weird combination of New York and Italian, but she still took care of herself, despite being in prison.

For the other girls lining up along the fence, she certainly could not say the same.

Their teeth were yellow and their hair was greasy and knotted. Like animals, the woman snarled and hissed at the group of newbies as they walked towards the double doors, some even having the audacity to whistle at Lacey. As if they had a chance.

Some crept away from her timidly, eyeing her carefully, chewing their lips nervously. So word had spread, even to prison.

"Just ignore all them," the Italian girl chirped. "You'll get used to it. It's not so bad here."

Lacey almost laughed aloud. So that's why this girl ended up in prison. She couldn't lie to save her life.

The girl with the pixie cut's loud scoff signaled that she had obviously caught the lie too.

The Italian girl pursed her lipstick-covered lips together tightly, but chose not to respond. She opened the glass double doors open for the group of three, smiling extra brightly at Lacey.

Racism?

Or had she heard the story and was trying to get on Lacey's good side?

After going through an extremely thorough security check, the group changed into bright orange prison uniforms, complete with khakis and baggy T-shirts. They were also given white long sleeve shirts and bulky jackets to keep them warm.

"Do we get your uniform later then?" the pixie cut girl asked the Italian, nodding her head at her colored uniform.

"Oh, yes. You'll probably get those after a week or two. You'll also get your bunk assignments around then too," she answered. "Also, my name's Lorna Morello, but call me Morello. Everyone goes by last names here," Morello added.

The group headed down the hallway and turned a corner into a crowded hallway, full of women of all ages and colors, all wearing the same uniform as Morello.

The walls were yellow bricks, marked from all the years of being beaten on by prisoners and never being repaired. The lighting was dim but bright yellow, with some lights down the hallway flickering or completely out. Women walking down the hallway looked drained and dirty, most of them looking like they hadn't had a good night's sleep or showered properly in the last five years.

It felt real now.

Lacey was actually in prison.

She was finally paying for all the things she had done ten years ago.

Part of her was relieved she was finally going to prison.

She had been counting down the months ever since the news spread and she couldn't go outside without being surrounded by cameras and people screaming at her that she deserved everything he had done to her.

They didn't need to remind her.

Maybe prison was going to be better than what her life had been like for the past nine months. Staying inside her apartment all the time while Tanner brought her everything she needed and pretending she hadn't heard all the things the crowds had screamed at him and him pretending they hadn't done anything was its own kind of prison in a way.

Morello chatted away as they walked down the wide hallway. Lacey probably should have been listening, but she couldn't help herself from getting distracted by how the whole hallway seemed to hush when they noticed her. Apparently word had really spread.

She tried not to make eye contact with any of the women, but it was difficult when she could feel all their eyes on her. Morello noticed too, but didn't seem surprised at all. It seemed like the entire prison had been anticipating Lacey's arrival. She couldn't tell whether their stares were out of malice or awe, or maybe both. She had no idea if they were all planning her murder or not, but either way, she did not like the attention. Lacey had been planning to arrive at this prison and fade into the background as much as possible, staying out of all the drama and not making any enemies, but it seemed like that was going to be near impossible now.

After an excruciating long five minute walk, they arrived in a quieter section of the prison. The hallway had narrowed, and fewer women walked the halls. There were wide open doors lining the walls, and Lacey peaked into one of them to see a small room with two metal bunk beds on each side. There was one barred window between the beds. The room was empty, but stuff was littering the room, so it was clear the room was occupied by four women. All the other rooms she peaked into looked pretty much the same, the only difference was the object and clothes covering the floors.

Morello stopped walking in front of one of the doors and turned to Lacey. "Locke, this will be your room for the next couple weeks until you get assigned to a bunk where you'll only have one roomie, instead of three."

Lacey nodded and followed Morello into the room. The Italian pointed at a bald old woman lying in her bed knitting. "This is Miss Rosa. She has cancer." Miss Rosa glanced up briefly, but didn't acknowledge her new roommate.

Morello signaled to another old woman with curly brown hair who was lying on her bed reading a book. "This is Rodriguez. She does not have cancer, but she snores like a train."

Rodriguez sat up on her bed and smirked at Lacey. "So you're Lacey Locke. The girl we've been hearing all about for the past year."

Lacey nodded, "That's me."

Rodriguez opened her mouth to say something else, but closed it when her eyes landed on something behind them.

Lacey turned around just in time to see a flurry of red hair and feel someone's shoulder bumping into her.

"And this is Nicky Nichols," Morello said, nodding towards the girl about their age who had just shoved past them and was now hopping onto the top bunk of the left bed.

"She just got out of SHU, so she's a little grumpy," Miss Rosa added as Nichols shoved her frizzy curly hair out of her face to put an earbud into her ear.

"Well, you'll be on that bed." Morello smiled brightly and handed Lacey a toothbrush, "Here's a toothbrush."

"Thanks," Lacey responded, taking the brush out of her hand.

Morello shot her one last smile before she headed out the door and continued down the hall with the pixie cut girl.

Lacey turned around and threw her pillow onto her bed, which was on top bed on the right bunk, and placed her toothbrush onto a ledge before she climbed back and sat down, feet swinging off the side.

"Welcome to Litchfield, Lacey Locke," said a raspy New York accent from behind her.

The accent made Lacey smile at Nichols when she turned around. It was exactly the same way her friends back home used to talk.

Nichols was sitting on her bed staring at Lacey, a confident smirk settles on her lips.

"Thanks, it seems great," Lacey commented sarcastically. Nichols's accent had brought out the Brooklyn accent in Lacey's voice, and she loved the way her voice sounded after years of keeping her voice under control to fit in. There was nothing to hide about her past here.

Nichols smiled when she heard Lacey's accent. "Yeah, might even be better than how you grew up."

There was no bitterness in Nichols's voice, and Lacey liked the surprise. Nichols was only pointing out that she had heard all about Lacey's childhood. Lacey laughed, brushing one of her red locks out of her face. "Sure hope so, Nichols," she responded.

"Call me Nicky," Nichols said with a friendly wink, pushing a hand through her wild hair.

Lacey smiled and leaned back onto her bed, closing her eyes and thinking about how Nicky Nichols could be a good person to hang out with in prison.