Orange Is the New Black Chapter 6 Summary

How It All Goes Down

High Voltage

  • Piper gets assigned to the electric shop instead. 
  • Unfortunately the GED program was canceled. The classrooms were overrun by toxic mold, which is not in line with Common Core standards.
  • She pretty much has to teach herself how to do everything, so... good thing she can read. 
  • One day, her boss, Mr. DeSimon, drives Pipes and a few other prisoners out to a pump house… and leaves them there. 
  • Piper wants to look around, but the other women talk her out of it. One thing you don't want to do in prison is get mistaken for an escapee. 
  • Mr. DeSimon comes back with brooms for them to clean out the root cellar of the pump house.
  • One day, Piper accidentally leaves work with a screwdriver in her belt. That's a weapon.
  • She chucks it in the Dumpster and hopes no one finds it. When an air-raid siren goes off, she's afraid they found it and know it's her, but no one ever knows she was briefly armed with such a deadly weapon.
  • Over the next few days, Piper makes prison friends, sneaks off to watch television during work, and, when Minetta leaves, gets offered the job of van driver. 
  • Piper turns it down because that position is notorious for being a prison snitch. (Different than a Golden Snitch.)
  • Piper then gets offered another unofficial job: Pop's best friend.
  • See, the kitchen diva's BFFP (best friend for prison) Nina is leaving, and she needs a replacement.
  • Piper turns down that job, too, because she doesn't want to leave Miss Natalie. B Dorm is her "ghetto home" (6.120).