Rebirth: The Trouble with Hating you

Chapter 3

Andrew Harrison laughed at her answer. "I'm not sending you away. You got into the best institution in the country and, for the course, you always wanted to go to. How could I not send you there? I know you will miss me, but your education and career are also important."

Eighteen is the time when a teenager has to focus more on careers and education, more than anything. When he became a father at twenty-three, he was glad that he had an education, if not money. If he didn't have a good education, he wouldn't be able to raise this beautiful girl. He didn't want to think about anything extreme, but education is a safety net that would save her from any big problems in life.

Dove didn't say anything. How could she tell her father that the institution where he was sending her was the beginning of all of her miseries? If she recalled correctly, she would get into an accident on the very first day there and then the real problems would begin. It was also the institution where she met Hunter Knightson in her last life. She had no interest in going there again.

It was where she and Hunter worked together to establish their company, but she was soon cast away and, in order to keep her mouth shut, she was given an executive position. Why would she go to that bad company again?

This time, she would avoid all those places, people and things to not let history repeat itself. Nobody knew better than herself how history likes to repeat itself. How badly she wanted to avoid that fate this time.

"Dad, I'm young and dumb," Dove answered, staring at her father. "I just thought that business management sounded fancy and cool. I am no longer interested in economics. I saw the syllabus for the course on the website of the institution. I don't find it easy. Can I not go there?"

She was lying. No, she was half lying. She didn't even bother to search for that horrid institute again on the internet.

"Nonsense, my daughter is the smartest girl in the class. She topped the country's entrance test for all national-level universities! How can she find economics and business management tough?" Andrew Harrison asked. He believed that she was hiding something. It was true that she was indeed hiding something from him, but it was not as grave as he thought in his mind.

Andrew continued, "I have an inkling that you are saying all these things to stay with me. Birdie, I am not old. You are going to college and it's final. I want no further discussion on this. For more than a week, you have been saying the same thing. If you don't go to this institution, you will have to wait one more year. It's not that I'm imposing my wishes on you. It's just that you rejected the counseling of all other colleges and this one is the last option you have. Your last option is someone's best option that is possible only in their wildest dreams."

How could his daughter not see how great the opportunity had fallen in her lap? It had not fallen in her lap, but she had worked extremely hard to grab it.

In her last life, Dove had rejected all the offers from other colleges because she was hellbent on going to this one. She would not call herself stupid as she had made up her mind. But what did she do now? Wasn't life after rebirth supposed to be easy? Why did it suddenly turn so difficult?

She seemed to have bad luck in everything. Why couldn't her life sail smoothly for once?

"I will just take a distance education course, " Dove said, as if it was not a big deal.

"Tell me the truth, do you have a boyfriend?" Andrew asked his daughter. "Are you worried that by going to a university so far you will be away from him? Darling, you should tell me if something like this is the matter."

"Dad, I don't have a boyfriend," Dove sighed. "You know it."

"You don't tell me stuff these days, Birdie, " Andrew answered.

"If I had a boyfriend, I promise that I would tell you first," Dove answered. "Dad, I will never leave any chance to go to college for a boy. I learned this from you."

"You better remember what you said today," Andrew said. "No boy is worth sacrificing your own happiness."

Tears clouded in her eyes as she recalled that her father had said the same thing in her last life but she didn't think it was wrong of her to give all of herself to a man who didn't deserve it. She ignored his golden advice in her last life but she wouldn't do it again.

Seeing that she was on the verge of tears, he panicked.

"How about this? If you get into any other top university, I will let you not go to the institution of Economics and Business Management, " Andrew said to make her stop crying and a big smile bloomed on her face. She pounced on her father for a hug and said thank you.

He sighed as she hugged him and wondered about the future. Only Andrew knew that top universities never take back the students who rejected their offers before. But how could he remind her of this?

As long as he agreed in any way, it was enough for her.

"Thank you, Dad, " Dove hugged him back.

"Do you have a plan?" Andrew asked him.

"Not yet, " Dove smiled. "But I will think of something."

Andrew didn't say anything else after seeing the shine in her eyes. As long as she was happy, he was satisfied.

"Come for breakfast, I made bacon for you, " Andrew said.

"Dad!" Dove said. "I told you that I'm no longer consuming any animal products. Veganism is a sustainable way of living. We have to think about our planet too."

"What new things are you learning?" Andrew sighed. His eye fell on her desk and he took a step ahead to hold the book and said, "Are my eyes playing a trick on me? Why is my daughter reading Karl Marx instead of Adam Smith?"

"I told you I'm no longer the same person, " Dove said with determination.

….

They all lied when they said life after rebirth is easy. Even with all the memories of her last life, she could not help herself at all. She wanted to scream in frustration while pulling her hair but she took a deep breath instead and reminded herself to be strong as she could do it!

No, she could not do it. She was failing miserably. Did God forget to revert her luck like her life? Then again, luck was never on her side.

After getting rejected by nine universities, she was sitting with her father in a cafe. He was getting a drink for her to cool net head while she was pondering on her strategy with a heated and malfunctioning head.

In her last life, she had read news on a meme page that a girl who mistakenly ended up rejecting the offer of her dream college went to the same college to sell her intelligence and knowledge to seek admission there. Didn't it sound so interesting and fun?

Dove now realized why meme pages were called meme pages in the first place. She was going to sue them– the b****y sons of capitalists! Of course, i********: was a product of capitalism and poor people like her were its victims.

In the last three days, she had traveled to nine cities to do the same, but she was thrown out of the admission block before she could even tell the administration why they must give her admission there. Oh, all she had to do was add how she 'mistakenly' refused their offer, and they would show her the door to the exit. Her father was watching all of it with an amused smile. He no longer loved her the same. She thought this with a pout in her head.

Now, a little defeated and a lot more creative in her head, Dove was drinking a sweet drink bought by her father.

"You are really insistent, aren't you?" Andrew said with a sigh. He had been seeing how his daughter was working hard to get admission into a good university. Her ideas were creative and intelligent but futile as they didn't work. However, he would like to ask her who put these ideas in her head? Wasn't his daughter completely realistic and practical? Did he take becoming a new person so literally that she forgot to possess common sense?

"Dad, I am trying," Dove said.

"Isn't it common sense that they won't take it back?" Andrew asked her.

"Voltaire said common sense is not so common," Dove said, and he pursed his lips. These days she has been quoting a lot of philosophers.

"What do you want to be in life, Birdie?" Andrew asked a while later.

"I want to be like Dad when I grow up," Dove answered without any hesitation. Her father was her moral support. He was someone who would never bear injustice. He would fight for his and others' rights. He always had solutions for problems. He was everything she wanted to be like in her life.

She didn't have to think about the answer as it came out of her heart on its own. In simple words, her father was her role model. He came from a foster home with no family, no money and no name. He waited tables at night and studied during the day. When he became a father at a young age, he didn't throw away the responsibility on the woman, instead raising his daughter all on his own. She still recalled the time when he got his first big job, when she was very young. He could not afford daycare for her, so he used to take her with him. She would stay with him all day and see him working hard for both of them. She still didn't remember seeing even a crease of stress and sadness on his face, as all he did was find happiness everywhere around him. She was going to do the same.

Dove hugged his arm and whispered, "You are my role model, Dad."

"Sweet mouth," Andrew chuckled, but his heart melted in a puddle.

"What do you want to study?" Andrew asked her a while later.

"Politics, Dad. I want to study politics," Dove answered, stubbornly.

"Will you help me?" Dove asked, dazed.

In the end, Daddy used his influence.

Standing at the gates of the university, Dove finally accepted that time had really turned back. She was going to enter into a completely different but old world. Her eyes were soft and moist. The intensity of emotions that she was hit with couldn't be described in words. She had taken a different path. She would not go through the heartache and suffering that she once went through. Everything from now on will be pleasant.

Behind her, Andrew was standing holding her luggage.

She finally changed her fate. Or that's what she believed.