Surviving Litchfield

Chapter Eight: Two Normal Girls

The next day after breakfast, I was assigned to electrical. This must've been a big mistake, as I had absolutely no experience. How would I be able to do anything? As I wandered around to find the right place, I silently prayed that Piper or somebody I knew would be there. How could I survive a job that I know nothing about if I'm completely alone?

I entered electrical and a few people turned to look at me. My eyes scanned the room of girls as I tried to focus on someone I knew. I almost gave up until I looked all the way to the left. At one of the tables, there were two girls looking at me. I sighed in relief as I noticed that one of them was familiar. Nichols.

I started walking towards her, but I was stopped by whoever the CO was. He had a beard and we were roughly the same height. I looked at his shirt and read his name. Luschek.

"Welcome to electrical. Your first task is to fix a lamp and then you'll actually be able to do things. Sometimes I'll have you go fix things in the prison and other times you can just do whatever, I really don't care. Just don't hurt yourself." Luschek said and handed me a book and a lamp.

After that grand introduction, I was set off to get this lamp to work. How the fuck would I do this, anyways? Maybe there was something about this stupid thing in the book. I continued thinking about the lamp as I walked over to Nicky.

"Damn, I can't even get away from you for a minute, can I?" She joked, twirling a screwdriver in her hand.

I rolled my eyes playfully. "I was about to say the same thing."

I put the lamp and the large book down on the table in front of us. I turned to my friend, who was now jabbing a screwdriver into our table. How interesting.

"Nicky, how do I do this?" I whispered, causing her to look up from whatever she was doing.

"I would help you, I really would, but Luschek wants you to do that on your own. Nobody helped me figure it out. You're on your own with this, kid."

I sighed. "What're you doing, anyways?"

"Trying to see how much force it takes to break through this table with a screwdriver." She said, going back to her job. At least one of us was having fun.

I flipped the book open, hoping it would be able to at least slightly help me. This book was definitely too thick to read the whole thing, and if I'm being honest, I didn't really want to read it all anyways. I continued going through page after page until I found something about lamps. I chose to use this as my help for the day.

*****

Nicky walked into my bunk and sat beside me on my bed. She pulled me towards her and laid me down on her lap like usual. One of her hands lightly caressed my cheek while her other hand was in my hair.

"How're you holding up?" She asked me before looking up at Alex, who was reading on her bed. "She got electrocuted today. It was nothing bad, but she was so startled."

"Damn." Alex whispered, putting the book down. "I'll be back in a few, I'll leave you two alone to talk."

Once Alex had walked out of sight, Nicky bent down to kiss my forehead. "So, you never told me if you're doing any better. If you weren't, did my kiss just fully heal you?"

I giggled like a child who had just gotten their favorite ice cream from an ice cream truck. "Yes, you fully healed me. Why'd you wait for Alex to leave before you kissed me, though? She's only Alex."

Nicky bit her lip. "I don't know, some people might get the wrong impression if they see us kissing. Friends with benefits often gets confused with girlfriends."