(May's POV)
Before I know it the day is over and I am grabbing my friends by their arms and dragging them to the home. We sit in the same set up as the previous afternoon, and I sit in between Lars and Ali.
The tape starts up again with an event called the tribute parade. One by one chariots roll out in order of district. District one's chariot is connected to two white horses, who beauty is nothing compared to that of the two tributes. They shimmer with the light reflecting off the gems that represent the luxury items that district produced back in the day. (Now, products or evenly distributed among the districts, with no district producing only one type of good). We learned about the history of the individual districts role back in the day. My attention is pulled back to the tape when I hear Lars and Ali jinx on one word, "Woah." I can't help but agree with their statement when I immediately notice the flaming spectacle on the screen. My parents are on fire. Like the flames, I feel a flicker of panic in the pit of my stomach. I feel at ease when I realize the beautiful flames are part of the costume. My parents faces are lit up from the light, and I am surprised to see them already raising some eyebrows by signifying that they are proud to be from district 12 but joining their hands together.
I can't help but gasp when I see what my mom is doing. I look at my friends I and I see that they are both trying so hard to keep in their laughter, and I don't blame them. Mom is acting like a completely different person. There she is in front of me, waving, blowing kisses, smiling at the clown-looking capitol people. I giggle and pull my friends closer to me, and you can feel the tension dissolve into the air. When all of the chariots stop in front of a very large stage I feel my forehead start to sweat when I see the man front and center. The man, presumably the President, just looks evil. He's lips remind me even more of a clown, but his presence just feels disturbing.
"Whose that guy?" Lars asks.
"Hm, I think he's the President." I say.
"What about President Paylor?" I turn towards Ali to answer her question.
"I'm guessing that President Paylor took over after the revolution, this must be the original president." Ali nods, satisfied with my answer.
We turn our attention back to the screen just in time for the man to introduce himself as President Snow, I guess I was right. He does a little speech that makes my skin crawl for it's disturbing nature about how the tributes are brave for their courage and sacrifice, yeah like they chose to go off and face certain death, well except for those crazy kids from 1 and 2. This guy must crazy, you know what, he has to be crazy. This guy is forcing innocent children to fight to the death. He needs to be locked up, but of course, he is in charge of who gets locked up.
The chariots wheel back inside the wall of the stadium and the screen goes black for a second, presumably to cut to the next part of the tape. When the screen comes back to life again, another capitol man introduces himself as Caesar Flickerman, he says it like everyone already knows him, which they probably do (just not us three). I decide that he is enjoyable enough, but I just can't get past the capitols fashion sense, makes me cringe almost every time one is on the screen. Anyway he explains that each of the 24 tributes will have 3 minutes for their interview. The first tribute up on the stage is named Glimmer and she was pretty mush perfect. I cast a glance at Lars and feel my cheeks blush when I notice that he is casting me a glance too. I quickly recover from the flushing in my cheeks and place my focus back on the screen. One by one each of the tributes try a new technique, but a few catch my attention. Both of the tributes from district 2 look especially threatening, Cato and Clove if I remember correctly. From district 5 a sly looking girl stands out as a girl with a very mysterious persona. Both tributes from district 11 interest me for both completely different reasons. The boy from 11, Thresh, is 18 but looks much older, well if you group muscle with age then he looks much older. He acts hostile and cold which I think compliments his outward appearance. The sight of the 12 year old little girl, Rue, I truly heart breaking. All three of us made not attempt to hide our sympathy for her, and anger towards this "past capitol" for putting this innocent little girl in such a horrible and in human act.
Before we know it my mom walks up on the stage, and she takes all of our breaths away, even the people on the screen from the capitol. My mom goes on about Lamb stew, when suddenly my heart aches when she talks about Primrose, and I feel something I never thought I would go through before. Betrayal. My mom lied to me about something as important as her having a younger sister. I feel the heat slowly rise up to my face. She lied. He lied. Both of my parents lied to me. For the first time since I found out this information is hitting me for real. Who knows what else they lied about? Their love for me? For Brogan? Then the thought hits me. Who are my parents? Why didn't they tell me? WHY WOULDN'T THEY TELL ME DAMMIT, WHY! I realize I must of said that last part out loud when Lars and Ali drag me into a small group hug. I sob into their shoulders, their arms and comforting words soothing me. Out of the corner of my eye I see Lars's and creep over the the projector remote to shut down the tape. I jump and grab the remote before he can get his hands on it. "No, NO! I am watching this tape! I-I need to know!" I scream at my friends shocked faces. Embarrassed I am quick to apologize, "Look, I'm sorry, it's just, I just need to know, I want to know, and I am going to wether you like it or not." They nod their heads understandingly, but don't say a word. I rewind the tape to before the part when I had a breakdown and play it. My father walks steadily on the stage, and I don't know why I still am taken a bit back when I see how different they look and act. Mom now looks nothing like the warrior beauty that was on the stage just a moment ago, well she is still beautiful but- a- um- hm- you, a, get the point. But for some reason the shock isn't as strong with my dad. Now he has much more muscle and looks better fed, but the kindness and charm still remains in dad's beautiful blue eyes, just like mine. During the interview all three of us are captured by my dad and his way to get along with nearly everyone, still amazes me to this day. Then we get to a part that makes us all smirk. Caesar asks if my dad had a girl back home. Here I am waiting to say that Katniss is his girlfriend, which would explain her shock and dismay when dad got reaped. We are all shocked when he answers no but he's liked a girl for a long time, but he doubts he was noticed before he was reaped. And when he states that she came with him I nearly faint at the irony and tragedy at the situation my poor parents were thrown into. When the screen goes black once more I pause the tape, say good bye to my friends and head home preparing myself for the very near future.