Post by Mattie Leigh Estraier on Apr 23, 2010 21:14:56 GMT -5
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The strangest part of Walton for Mattie so far was the fact that there was no snow on the ground. It was winter and was still rather cold on some days, but the absence of that slushy, disgusting mess almost put Mattie in a most agreeable mood. New York was as harsh towards its inhabitants as the weather was to those that weren’t privledged enough to ward off its icy grip. Mattie hated the cold more than anything and would have given her left arm on some of the nights just to warm her chilled body by a lit fireplace. She used to have good memories of those back when she actually lived in a home. The dorms at the Walton University weren’t much of an upgrade from some of the places that she had known, but at least it was secure enough and somewhat warm. She swore that the University was using their student’s tuition money for uncredited raises in the staff’s saleries as opposed to actually updating some of their residence halls that were built in the 60’s. The heat in her room had trouble kicking in, which was a pain, as some of her dorm-neighbors had trouble with overheated rooms. Ah, that’s the life.
So that’s when the small girl made her way to the local store where she could buy some necessities, such as... well a blanket for one and something to tide over her appetite. She needed to get motivated in order to get a job so that she could at least feed herself like every other competent human being out there. Mattie hated grocery stores, especially when she went hungry, because everything there made her so damn agitated, especially when she couldn’t get whatever she’d like. Despite her sour attitude about it, she walked into the store with her worn bookbag that she constantly took with her to classes in the University. At least she still had a small fund that she had saved up before coming to Walton city.
Mattie grabbed one of the shopping baskets. Yes a basket... not a cart, which is what she would have prefered to take. She went straight to the back of the store, where they usually kept most of the things that people actually would go to the grocery store in a hurry, and tried to keep her eyes from becoming glued to the things that she didn’t need, but wanted. Before she began to actually salivate from going through the chocolate isle, she finally made it to the chilled dairy products. She pulled both two percent milk and half and half from their designated places in the fridged sections. Satisfied with her choices, she then began to make her way over to the coffee isle where she grabbed a bag of the regular coffee beans. They were the cheapest.
By the time she reached the soup/canned goods isle, she had already mentally calculated how much more she could afford to get for the next week’s meals. Unfortunately she might have to skip out on a few dinners to make it last. Damn, she really needed that job. A few applications to some of the Walton joints were resting peacefully within her bag, ready to be filled and handed in. Mattie’s eyes ran skeptically along the top shelf where she could unfortunately not reach very well. Mattie looked around her to make sure that no one could see her attempt at reaching for the canned soup. When she was sure no eyes were peering at her curiously, she stood on her toes and reached, but could barely get a good grasp at the can. She quickly went back to standing normally. Her eye was suddenly caught by a cart that appeared to have no owner on the other side of the isle. Looking over the contents, her interest piqued at a couple banana’s within the person’s cart. Without further thought, she reached in and took on of the longer ones. Quickly back to her soup destination, she used the banana to tilt the can towards her.
It happened so quickly, Mattie could only remember seeing a small tumble of the cans of the top row hitting and rolling around her. She flinched slightly at the sound of impact that the cans made when they reached the hard floors. Mattie cursed a colorful word, while still grasping the borrowed banana in her right hand.----------------------------------------------------------
