Catalyst

IV

When Ally got to Litchfield, she basically became the new Crazy Eyes.

And while it'd been a pretty lonely experience at first, she much rather preferred strange looks and people keeping their distance than the hell she knew the new girl was being put through.

Until she met Dinah.

Dinah, she decided after their first interaction, is okay. And pretty. Very pretty.

She still remembers seeing Dinah come into Litchfield with that look in her eyes, and wondering what the hell she'd gone through to look like that. And then three weeks later, Ally went to Sophia to get her hair done and Dinah was there, and even though Ally hadn't talked properly to anyone, she'd felt a pull to Dinah that she'd been unable to identify.

Then came Lauren, and their duo quickly turned to a trio.

She knows it probably isn't healthy to be crushing on her Polynesian friend, but it was so nice to feel something positive for once that she didn't even care about the negatives that came along with it. The universe had to find some way to balance the emotions in her head, she supposes.

And maybe she got a little too excited when Dinah showed up in her shared block with Lauren in the afternoons, and maybe when she and Dinah played pranks on the guards, Ally took the blame and landed herself in the SHU every once in awhile, but she swears she won't let it become unhealthy.

(Maybe it's already a little unhealthy.)

"Hernandez!"

Ally slowly turns her head, hearing the clicks of the heavy red metal door before she sees the guard on the other side of it, waiting impatiently for her to stand.

"See you next week."

Ally grins at his words, allowing him to lead her out. The sounds of the other inmates in their own separate cells resonate louder in the hallways, Ally flinching a few times as their moans and screams fill her ears.

Isolation: everyone's biggest fear, but Ally's second home.

(Not that she in any way liked this home; it was smelly and days passed as one, but she spent so much time in this lower area of the prison that she had her own designated cell.)

She's thankful when they're out of there, Ally being dismissed to her cell block for the remainder of the day. She learns that it's nearly dinner time, the rest of the day having passed by.

Lauren perks up when Ally walks in, giving her friend a hug. "I'm okay, Laur. It was only one day this time." Lauren shakes her head with a smirk as if to say you're lucky, bitch. "Yeah, yeah. Go back to your book, asshole."

But really, you'd think nearly giving the guard a heart attack would earn her at least two days.

Lauren flips her off before returning to her side of the block, book propped up in her lap. Ally situates herself on her bed (her glorious, magical bed that she always seemed to obsess over a little after spending time down in the SHU with the metal slates they passed as beds), mumbling careless things to herself and rocking back and forth. Lauren doesn't even react, used to this kind of behavior from Ally.

She tends to get like this every once in awhile, though she can't control it. Sure, when she's purposefully trying to scare the other inmates away, she's in complete control. But just like everyone else, she has her... moments. Being in prison and spending as much time as she does below ground level wasn't the healthiest thing for her mentally, and it tended to take it's toll whether she wanted it to or not.