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31_days2012-12-30 02:25 pm
seta-suzume.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2012-12-30 02:25 pm
[Dec. 30] [The Hunger Games] Grape Soda Pop
Title: Grape Soda Pop
Day/Theme: Dec. 30, 2012 "wasn't older yet"
Series: The Hunger Games
Character/Pairing: District 5 victor and tributes way back when
Rating: PG
Author's comment: Last in my series of victors' point of view 13th Games stories.
In District 5, there was a shop that everyone called the "Sign Shop." They didn't sell signs there, although you could buy some paint and a piece of board if you needed to make one. The nickname came from the way the place was decorated. Inside and outside, signs, signs, signs. There were modern products advertised like Crispco crackers and cookies, expensive Capitol-designed clothes that no one in all of 5 but victor Shy Evert could afford, and almost supernaturally powerful medications that, likewise, no one but Shy could afford, but these only made up about half the Sign Shop's decorations. The others were for things, or at least brands, that no longer existed, Old Gold Cigarettes and Red Seal Snuff and a drink called Coca Cola.
Homemade, local District 5 signs added to the charm. If there was a special sale on grape soda pop, for instance, it was the job of the Sign Shop's son to paint up a banner or something advertising it.
Shy did most of her shopping at the Sign Shop, sending away to the Capitol for fancier things as little as possible. She had always liked the shop and now she had the money to buy a grape soda pop every day if she wanted to, just like she had wished she could when she was a tiny girl tagging along with her mother to buy groceries.
If the Sign Shop owner's son was working out on the porch in front of the shop, Shy would stay and watch him a while. He was a good painter. He spaced the letters out evenly by eye. He had a keen hand.
His name was Coy Eastman and he became District 5's male tribute for the Thirteenth Hunger Games.
Just like she had in the year before that, Shy took the time to speak with both of her tributes, asking the questions she had determined were most likely to reveal to her a skill or quality that they possessed that could bring them through alive. Shy hadn't done it yet (brought a tribute home), but sooner or later, right? Someday?
With a slingshot, as with his paintbrush, the Sign Shop's Coy Eastman had a quick and clever eye.
But as good as he was, there was a new element at play neither he or Shy (or the girl Shy fought just as hard for until her death) could conquer. Coy Eastman made it into the final eight, but he with so few sponsorships. Silk Sachet was the tribute so much (money, who knows about people, thinks Shy, but so, so much money) of the Capitol had chosen to win. And money won.
Coy Eastman never went home to the Sign Shop. His younger sister took over the task of making the local signs, but they were never as even and professional-looking again.
Ten years later when John Eastman died and his only remaining child inherited the shop she sold it to the second son of another merchant family. He wanted to remake the general shop into something newer and flashier, even if he could never sell anything there but the same old merchandise. He took down the signs, old and new, foreign and local, and for several months, along with the same old things, the Sign Shop sold signs. Shy bought the grape soda sign and hung it in her kitchen.
The name was changed to Ernine's Sundries, but they still grape soda pop, for only ten cents more than in the year of the Thirteenth Hunger Games. Shy Evert could still afford one a day if she wanted (and many more).
She settled for about once a week.
Day/Theme: Dec. 30, 2012 "wasn't older yet"
Series: The Hunger Games
Character/Pairing: District 5 victor and tributes way back when
Rating: PG
Author's comment: Last in my series of victors' point of view 13th Games stories.
In District 5, there was a shop that everyone called the "Sign Shop." They didn't sell signs there, although you could buy some paint and a piece of board if you needed to make one. The nickname came from the way the place was decorated. Inside and outside, signs, signs, signs. There were modern products advertised like Crispco crackers and cookies, expensive Capitol-designed clothes that no one in all of 5 but victor Shy Evert could afford, and almost supernaturally powerful medications that, likewise, no one but Shy could afford, but these only made up about half the Sign Shop's decorations. The others were for things, or at least brands, that no longer existed, Old Gold Cigarettes and Red Seal Snuff and a drink called Coca Cola.
Homemade, local District 5 signs added to the charm. If there was a special sale on grape soda pop, for instance, it was the job of the Sign Shop's son to paint up a banner or something advertising it.
Shy did most of her shopping at the Sign Shop, sending away to the Capitol for fancier things as little as possible. She had always liked the shop and now she had the money to buy a grape soda pop every day if she wanted to, just like she had wished she could when she was a tiny girl tagging along with her mother to buy groceries.
If the Sign Shop owner's son was working out on the porch in front of the shop, Shy would stay and watch him a while. He was a good painter. He spaced the letters out evenly by eye. He had a keen hand.
His name was Coy Eastman and he became District 5's male tribute for the Thirteenth Hunger Games.
Just like she had in the year before that, Shy took the time to speak with both of her tributes, asking the questions she had determined were most likely to reveal to her a skill or quality that they possessed that could bring them through alive. Shy hadn't done it yet (brought a tribute home), but sooner or later, right? Someday?
With a slingshot, as with his paintbrush, the Sign Shop's Coy Eastman had a quick and clever eye.
But as good as he was, there was a new element at play neither he or Shy (or the girl Shy fought just as hard for until her death) could conquer. Coy Eastman made it into the final eight, but he with so few sponsorships. Silk Sachet was the tribute so much (money, who knows about people, thinks Shy, but so, so much money) of the Capitol had chosen to win. And money won.
Coy Eastman never went home to the Sign Shop. His younger sister took over the task of making the local signs, but they were never as even and professional-looking again.
Ten years later when John Eastman died and his only remaining child inherited the shop she sold it to the second son of another merchant family. He wanted to remake the general shop into something newer and flashier, even if he could never sell anything there but the same old merchandise. He took down the signs, old and new, foreign and local, and for several months, along with the same old things, the Sign Shop sold signs. Shy bought the grape soda sign and hung it in her kitchen.
The name was changed to Ernine's Sundries, but they still grape soda pop, for only ten cents more than in the year of the Thirteenth Hunger Games. Shy Evert could still afford one a day if she wanted (and many more).
She settled for about once a week.