SOCT Round 1 pt 1

“Thanks for the soda.” Charrie smiled at the cloaked lady who was soon to be his opponent.
“No problem” She said. “So, are you excited?”
He nodded slightly, Ara picked up on the hesitation. “You got the letter making you go?”
“No, my mentor, Macero is making me enter. He trained me.”
“Why didn’t he just enter?”
“I-I don’t know.” He gave her an apologetic smile. “It’s normally best not to ask questions.”
“Oh. So are you two related?”
“No.” He shook his head. “He’s the head priest at the church that adopted me.”
“Oh.” She knew she should stop but she couldn’t help but ask. “What happened to your parents?”
He frowned, pushing the straw in circles with his tongue. Ara was wondering if she’d crossed the line until after almost a full three minutes he answered “They where in a car crash. It-it was my fault.”
She didn’t speak and he didn’t continue until he looked at her, a smile was forced upon his freckled face. “What about you.?”
There was a pause. "I never knew them," Ara said quietly. "I was told that they considered me...unnatural and left me to fend for myself when I was a baby."
"I'm sorry," Charrie said. He knew full well what it felt like to have no parents. "W-What part of you is unnatural? I mean, you seam pretty human to me."
Ara pulled back the hood of the cloak, letting Charrie see her silver hair and purple eyes. He started at the unusual colors that situated on her hair and eyes. She placed a half-grin on her face, stared into the crowd and said, "The villagers, where I live, just barely accepted my looks after seventeen years." She glanced at Charrie. "You're lucky you got accepted into society. Non-humans aren't the only one who gets persecuted by half the population, abnormal humans do too."
Their conversation was interrupted as the International Fraternity of Police Enforcers Recruitment Tournament got onto quasi stage of close together vehicles and began the announcements.
Charrie jumped up, moving closer to hear better. There are two of them, the blond man speaking first and a gruffer man with a cigar hanging of his mouth picking up where he left off. Pretty much they where dishing out the rules and going over stuff Macero had already told him. “Here.” A man with a gravely voice stuffed a bulky silver phone into his hand right as the man on the stage began to explain that it was for tournament use only, one ring tone would ring when the judges called and one when they where near there opponent. The two men left and Charrie stared wearily down at his cell-com.
Meanwhile Ara hadn’t moved from her spot on the steps except to pull her hood up. “Here.” The man shoved the phone into her hand and yanked his hand away just as quickly. He obviously thought she was a non-human, what other reason did she have to hide her face?
She ignored his reaction, calmly taking the cell-com and slipping it into one of the many pockets of her sleeve, mumbling softly under her breath. “Technology is a piece of cake, magic … not so much.”