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☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ
CALI SANDOVAL BELIEVES THAT THINGS AREN'T JUST MEANT TO HAPPEN, as though all we are had been predetermined by fate before we even developed consciousness. It was a statement that reeked of avoiding accountability. The human race was brought on this Earth with the ability to learn, grow, and adapt. We may all be specks of dust in a vast universe with infinite possibilities, but that didn't mean our decisions were insignificant to the grand scheme of our lives' trajectory. Translate it into a more idealistic idea, though, one would understand that Cali has always meant "we all write our own destiny."
Her friends had to sit through hours-worth of existential rants about this topic, sometimes they choose to actively listen, more often than not they just use it as white noise to fall asleep to. Cali was just glad that they never get tired of being there to lend her a willing ear, since it was always rare that people stuck around to be interested in the way her mind works.
Perhaps it was far too convoluted of a discussion to have, but truly, it was something that haunted her thoughts often. Especially nowadays, considering the fact that she has authored her life's story to contain quite a messy plot point.
To be fair, it all started because of the incredible pressure she's placed on her own shoulders, wanting to make her Dad proud. It had always been a difficult feat, since he wasn't around much for all the moments Cali felt most successful. This didn't mean he was a bad father, he just didn't fill the shoes of a decent parental figure the way they normally should have. Cali always wondered if it would've been easier had Arthur Sandoval been absent, deadbeat, or even abusive ━━━ not that she claimed any of these qualities were ideal for any father to have ━━━ because the resentment wouldn't feel so wrong. But there she stood, torn between gratitude and indignation.
One would think that him getting remarried just two years after being widowed would make Cali's case of divided sentiments less wearisome, but on the contrary, it just increased the toil ten-fold. Considering that her stepmother Joan was a blameless woman who has tried her hardest to warm the then 8-year-old Cali up to her, the next seven years of indifferent formality she received from the young girl didn't seem the least bit objectively fair.
Not to mention the fact that she's vowed to herself, at the fresh age of ten, just years after she'd developed a consciousness and the ability to be resolved about something, to get rich enough to get her and her younger sister out of this place. It'd be impossible to try and explain that to her father, but she was sure he'd just go chalk it up as families drifting apart, like it was a normal occurrence for all the perfect families. Except they'd already started drifting apart the moment he chose to end the chapter with Cali and Athena's mother, his late wife, to start anew. (Angsty 13-year-old Cali would say that it was selfish of him, but she couldn't bring herself to insult a man that just wanted to find love again. Even if that man was supposed to be her father first.)
