Life on the outside was never easy once one got out of jail. Any little fuck up could land you right back in within hours almost as if it never happened. Breaching parole, missing a curfew, failing a drug test, all of the above and there was no chance at any court date. You went right back in. For most it was harder than being locked up for you didn't have the structure, you didn't have the support of many of the inmates that became your family, you had to get your own meals that could prove difficult, along with housing, a job, and you were exposed to more than your fair share of temptation that landed you in jail in the first place. Many didn't get the treatment they needed while being locked up for the addictions, mental illnesses, and the post trauma of abuse they faced. Left untreated many of the women in Chowchilla faced the same lives they did on the outside ending up in abusive relationships with women, being high day after day and tricking just as if they were on the street. Same rules, different place as they worked hallways and corners of some cellmates who acted like pimps. Relationships suffered especially ones with their children who some rarely saw if ever. Even Stef's visits with her kids were becoming less and less frequent as well as Lena's visits with Noah.
Roxanne Foster (she changed her last name legally from Evans) had been in and out of prison most of her life and had never lasted more than a month on the outside for she just didn't know how. She didn't know how to live a normal life of going to work every day to earn an honest living, she didn't understand the rules of society of what you could do vs what you couldn't. She followed her own set of rules which always landed her right back inside. The stress of the outside world was far worse than the stress of inside she felt. At least on the inside she had her family and a place to sleep along with her sister, Stef. That was the other issue for she had been with her for so long it was almost like she didn't know how to survive without her despite having a daughter of her own who could have benefited in more ways than one from having her mother around.
Raquel Foster was Roxy's only daughter whom she gave birth to when she was just 18 and the woman had no idea what to do with her. None and it was Stef who helped her from day one for she had moved in with the blonde and her father permanently years prior. But they were young, too young and deep involved in what they were doing and Roxy from time to time moved out sleeping with different women and moving from one relationship to another. She was known at times to hit or smack around the women she was with and Stef warned her about it and got on her case but when she was drunk it was game over and her hand would go up leaving some she was with with black eyes. The Lions Den didn't have it and Stef told her from day one if she ever laid her hand on a woman again she would personally throw her out on the street and kill her. The irony was confusing. It really was for Roxy had been the one to almost kill Frankie's father for hitting Stef and it made no sense or maybe it did for she just didn't know how to control her own anger and cried her ass off about it. Frankie's father was just mean, and didn't care worth a shit.
When Raquel was five Roxy landed in jail for the first time for drug trafficking, assault, and conspiracy to commit murder. Landing in foster care for the first time the young girl never had a chance. Stef herself wanted to take the girl but the complexities of her life and the system did not allow it as Raquel moved from home to home to home. She was not a bad kid but the lack of guidance, and the lack of love set her up for a life similar to that of her mothers. By the time she was 11 she was stealing, and by the time she was 13 she had ran away from yet another home living on and off the streets with friends. Being placed in a group home at 14 she ran off to be with a drug dealer and before she knew it she was on the street tricking day after day and picking up a nasty drug habit herself. A few times she tried to get out which had proved to be deadly for it cost her a bullet in the head which she miraculously survived. However when she woke up in the hospital she found herself handcuffed to the bed and a month later she was on her way to Chowchilla to share a cell right with her mother. Roxy knew none of this but it would tear her apart when she did.
Raquel wasn't the only one on her way to Chowchilla for so was Cheryl Knight who had breached parole. Not that she cared for she could handle prison but like many others better than life on the outside. Cheryl was was tough, reckless, misguided, ruthless and downright heartless and cold. The queen of manipulation got her into the Lion's Den in the first place and right in Stef's heart for she had a knack for it . A knack for playing the role she needed to get what she wanted and that had been the role of Stef's wife. The power, it was that power she saw that the blonde had that she wanted over people herself. She had some to a point and as she sat handcuffed on the bus to Chowchilla besides Raquel, a woman she didn't know or care to, her mind was running games in her head. Over and over. Cheryl knew she had to play her cards right and carefully for she left things rather messy and complicated especially since she had blown off Stef. During her time inside she had stolen bit by bit from the Den and her trail had been untraceable until she left putting the Latina Queens and Lions Den against each other. Playing both sides well she had to fix it and quick while earning her spot back in the Den.
Had she ever loved Stef, nah. Did she feel guilty for playing her the entire time. Not really. The sex was good that had always been good but she used Stef for her own advantages. She knew the blondes weakness all to well and used it against her in many ways playing on them like crazy. To the point that she told Stef she had a kid herself and knew all about the pain, but truth was she had no kid and never did as she told her lie after lie about how they would marry when they got out and live together forever.
No one in the Lions Den liked Cheryl, no one especially Roxy and Cheryl didn't like Roxy either for she knew the woman saw through her and she did. It had gotten so bad that she almost killed the relationship Roxy and Stef had turning them against each other for months to the point where they no longer spoke. It was a shit show and each day Cheryl planned more and more how to betray her and take over her spot even to the point of wanting to kill her. She could have done it many times, and it would have been easy as many times as they were alone. But each time she didn't and to this day she wondered why. This time, shit it would be different and she would destroy her and rip more then her heart out. Much more leaving her feeling the most heartbroken and hollow then it ever could be. So she thought.
However, Cheryl wasn't banking on her spot being taken not at all or Lena Adams who had become just as vicious and treacherous as her but in a different way. Unlike Cheryl, Lena didn't hurt just to hurt, she didn't cause pain just to cause pain and unlike Cheryl she did love Stef. The blonde was her heart, her soul, her everything and there was no way anyone was getting passed her. Ever and Cheryl would soon find that out. The hard way.
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MM this should be interesting.
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Hard Time (Hard Time Series Book 1)
FanfictionStef Foster and Lena Adams are two women who are serving 10-15 years in prison for manslaughter. As Lena initially fears the blonde they soon fall deeply in love as both try to navigate life in prison. NOTE: I do not own the Fosters. However, I do...
