Chapter 1

The preliminary exam for the Presidential Scholarship was about to begin. I stared at the essay prompt on the screen.

The Nature of Ambition.

I knew exactly what to write. I knew every word, every comma that would create a perfect essay. An essay that would guarantee my spot in the finals.

An essay that would lead to my death.

In my last life, I wrote that perfect essay. My rival, Ethan, submitted an identical one online, just thirty minutes before I handed in my paper copy.

He and my girlfriend, Jessica, launched a campaign on TikTok. They painted me as a fraud, a plagiarist who stole from the school' s golden boy.

The scandal destroyed me. The school expelled me. The scholarship was gone.

The stress of it all made my mother' s weak heart give out. She died in the hospital, asking why I would do such a thing.

My father, a simple man who ran a bait-and-tackle shop, spent his life savings trying to clear my name. He died when his fishing boat capsized in a storm. The official report called it an accident. I knew better.

I ended my own life on the day Ethan graduated from Yale. I saw the pictures online, him smiling with his tech mogul father. I had nothing left.

Now, I was back. In the same exam room, at the same desk. The clock on the wall showed I had two hours.

I picked up my pen.

My hand was shaking, not from fear, but from a cold, hard rage.

I would not walk into the same trap. I would not die again.

I spent the next hour and fifty minutes writing garbage. I wrote an essay full of flawed logic, terrible grammar, and half-formed ideas. I even crossed out entire paragraphs, making it look like the work of someone who had a complete mental breakdown.

When the bell rang, the proctor walked down the aisle to collect the papers.

I stood up.

Everyone looked at me.

I walked to the front of the room, past the proctor. I took my university applications from the submission tray.

Then, I ripped them in half.

And then in half again.

The pieces of paper fluttered to the floor.

"I'm dropping out," I announced to the silent room. "I'm going to work at my father's bait-and-tackle shop."

I turned and walked out, leaving the whole school in shock.