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To say Araceli McCall had been through a lot would be an understatement. And yet, life had no intention of stopping the pain, grief, and constant discomfort it kept handing her as if a lobster on a silver platter.
Truth be told; she was starting to miss her parents. Like a lot. Especially her mom, but there was nothing she could do about it. They were gone, forever, now figments of her imagination. Once her fiercest protectors, now only able to see them in her dreams. Truth not be told; she blamed herself for the accident.
Scott knew full well she couldn't place the blame on who was truly responsible, even if he was a terrible person nonetheless. He watched her crumble before his eyes, he sensed a heartbeat that never calmed, and he could see the cracks forming in her facade. When she lied and lied day and night through her bruised, bloody, and chapped lips. When she lied and lied and tried to convince everyone — including herself — that it was her fault. After all, she was one who had been arguing in the car with her dad when he lost control. The kanima just happened to be there.
Despite Scott's father not being in the picture (he claimed it was for the better), Araceli's mother always tried to keep the bond between Scott and Araceli alive and growing, and that meant driving from Los Angeles to Beacon Hills to get the family back together.
Araceli didn't know much about Scott's dad. Honestly, she was too young to remember what he was like before he divorced Melissa. From what she could conclude, though, her dad was very similar to his. She wasn't sure how her parents hadn't divorced, it was totally natural and everyone else's parents seemed to be doing it — especially in LA. Pretty much everyone from her old friend group had parents who weren't together, what would be one more unhappy couple? It was safe to say Araceli had already made her peace with that. To her surprise, they stayed together. She wasn't totally sure why, but she had a guess it had to do with her father's need to constantly be in control. Hence why he was driving the night the car crashed.
"Put your foot down!" her father had been screaming at her, unnoticed at first due to loud music coursing through Araceli's headphones. Nirvana. A favorite. A classic.
She only noticed when he finally had turned around, smacking her foot down from where it had been placed on the center console between her parents. Araceli pushed her headphone away from her right ear, Smells Like Teen Spirit still playing through her left ear. "You could've just asked, you didn't have to push me," she grumbled, repositioning herself to become comfortable again in the backseat. She crossed her legs and arms over her chest bitterly.
"Quit whining," her father rolled his eyes. "That's all you're good for."
"Raymond," her mother said sternly.
And see, it was the littlest things that could set off her father like that. All it took was someone looking at him the wrong way, or speaking to him in a tone he didn't appreciate and that was it. Araceli and her mother — Christina, who was an older twin of her daughter — took the brunt. Even though the girls had hardly spoken up in fear of him, they were still somehow at fault. That night while driving into Beacon Hills, Raymond McCall somehow thought it was the perfect time to start another one of his petty fights.
One minute she was sitting cross-legged in the backseat and looking at her painted purple fingernails, and the next Araceli was being tossed around like a rag doll as their car flipped — and her father's screams were cut off abruptly.
The young girl dragged herself out of the backseat, the car now upside down on the side of the road near the mechanic shop. She screamed until her throat could no longer produce her screams, and even after that, she screamed some more. Her left leg was badly twisted and stung, it was cut in many different places. But that was nothing compared to her parents.
Her father had died first, the thought alone angering Araceli to the end of the world. He had flown from the car and landed a few yards away, dead upon impact.
Araceli had to drag herself around the car to reach her mother from the passenger seat, pulling her away from the car as she finally heard sirens in the distance. But it was too late. Araceli had to bid her mother goodbye, fiercely wiping away tears from her eyes to better see her mother as she held her tighter than she ever had in her life — ramblings about how sorry she was for everything. By no means was Araceli an easy kid to handle, but she had thought she'd have many many more years to annoy her mother. Last thing she expected that night was for them to be cut short.
After being orphaned, her aunt Melissa and cousin Scott took her in and Araceli was forced to adjust rather quickly. After all, it was the middle of the school year. She was just becoming accustomed to school and her new home when big new secrets started revealing themselves.
She later learned this car accident was not her father's doing, but a fate caused by the Kanima, a supernatural creature that inhabited and roamed Beacon Hills. She also found out her old pal Stiles Stilinski had been at the mechanic shop, paralyzed and forced to watch someone die — also at the hands of the kanima. Matter of fact, Araceli was pretty smart at catching onto a lot of things.
Araceli honestly was never going to confront Scott about his secret, but he had accidentally unveiled it on his own while protecting her from the Argents when they suspected her to be involved with the kanima situation.
Curveball by curveball, she stuck by him, helping him with everything from taming Derek's betas to helping him and Allison sneak around. Araceli got caught up in a lot, including the Argent family war, but she didn't mind. As long as she was helping Scott, she couldn't see herself in any other position.
She walked out with a lot of scars and bruises. But she was gonna earn a whole lot more.
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This chapter is dedicated to the lovely _harrysgap !! Thank you for pulling me out of my writing hole (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
