How do we make good terms with others? Is it agreeing with them on about mostly everything? Is it being generous to that person to the point you're dubbed a kiss-ass? Is it being honest, expelling the truth to the point that it may offend others? Some liked a hard dick while others liked a soft pussy. It was just a matter of preference.

This was rambling through Aurora's head. During breakfast, she got the feeling her siblings were annoyed at her. They envied her. She was smart, beautiful, and appeared to think too high of herself. To her, she was unique, but she wasn't as beautiful compared to her mother or as knowledgeable compared to her father. Why would she be considered as a snob?

She was practicing her words again. Though she lacked Blu's artist skills, she was a phenomenal writer and excelled in math for her age. Writing was one of those traits you were born into. They always said if you were an excellent reader and writer, you were a horrible mathematician and vice versa. Even though she did struggle in reading comprehension, writing and math were simple. It was quite unusual, but she was part of the small percentage that disproved this theory.

Aurora was finished the last stanza of her small poem. It was an inspiration poem to motivate herself. She was feeling a bit out of place. She figured if she expressed her thoughts, it might restore some confidence in confronting with her siblings again. Aurora read it and smiled. She folded it and tucked it away underneath the nest when no one was looking. She joined the others.

Blu was teaching some science today. It wasn't necessary for Aurora to be there, but she had always been intrigued by what Blu talked about. Aurora looked around as Blu talked about naming chemicals. She noticed that Jewel was asleep, Leoncio and Elena were doodling instead of taking notes, and Jalin was listening to every word Blu said.

"Naming chemicals could be simple at first. Some inorganic crystals and metal bonds are easy to name while complex organic molecules and inorganic crystals are not. We don't always call things by the chemicals we see in the Periodic Table. An example of this is the mixture of copper and zinc. Instead of calling it copper(II)-zinc(III), we call it brass. Another good example of this is (2E,4E,6E,8E)-3,7-Dimethyl-9-(2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohexen-1-yl)-2,4,6,8-nonatetraen-1-ol. We know it as Vitamin A. If we know the basis of naming chemicals, we can distinguish the properties of it."

Jewel began to snore. Blu sighed. Once Jewel was snoring, yelling to his kids was the only option. They had talked about the elements on the periodic table for about forty-five minutes. He figured it would be a good place to stop at.

"Okay. That concludes the lesson on science for this week. Tomorrow is English, so we will try to write words. Hopefully one of these days, I can write in Portuguese to show you."

Leoncio faced Elena.

"I like it when Mama goes to sleep. That always means class will be over soon."

Blu walked over to Jewel and tapped her wing.

"Jewel? Wake up."

Jewel lazily opened her eyes.

"Is it over?"

Blu sighed.

"Jewel, am I that boring?"

Jewel looked at his eyes.

"Of course not. It's just that I'm not into the whole science and math thing."

"Well, I see, but you were snoring again."

"Oh," replied an embarrassed Jewel. "How bad this time?"

"Just echoing through the den. I'm pretty sure our neighbor miles away heard it."

Jewel smiled.

"Well, I'm just resting for tonight."

Blu remembered. Tonight was a starry dinner with Jewel. Rafael had told him of a fancy restaurant in Rio. It had everything a guy needed on a date, except for protection. The only problem that Blu didn't like was that the chef and the waiters were rats. Rafael assured Blu that they cleaned themselves before serving any food. Rafael did mention that he needed two ounces of mozzarella cheese for each bird. Blu had to ask Linda for some.

"But Dear, if the kids see you sleeping, they might not pay attention to me."

"You do know that Jalin is the only one really paying attention to you?"

Blu sighed.

"Great. Half of the family ignores my lectures."

"Only when you do science and math. I mean when are you ever going to apply it?"

"You'll be surprised. In fact, I could've broken the chain off using math."

"Yeah, but that gave us both a headache."

"Only if my beak didn't get caught, it would've worked."

Aurora walked up to her parents.

"Papa, since you're done talking, can we go somewhere?"

Jewel smiled.

"Well, I was thinking it would be great if we went to the river."

"Bath time?" groaned Aurora.

Aurora didn't like the idea of bath time. Sure, you look pretty and all, but it was a tiresome process. For girls, being pretty was a lot of hard work. Most enjoyed it. Some got carried away and looked like clowns when they were done. Aurora had seen them in Rio. They had a definite red blush; black, long, and curly eyelashes; makeup under their eyes to hide their dark spots, and three or four layers of lipstick. Make-up wasn't bad, but putting too much of it on, it might as well been known as fake-up.

"Mama, why is it so hard for us?"

"Huh?"

"Well, we are girls. We have to do our feathers, polish our beaks, find a lily, clean our feet, and so on. For boys, it's just take a bath and then done. Sometimes they don't clean themselves."

"Well, it's for them."

"That doesn't make sense. They should like us no matter how we look like."

Blu looked at Jewel. If she was very ugly when they met, like if she had a hillbilly face, he would rather move back to Minnesota and tried an online dating site. Jewel faced him. He already knew what she was going to ask.

"Blu, would you still love me if I was ugly?"

"Ye…yeah, but let's go to the river. It's getting late."

"Blu, was that an unsure yes?"

"Of course not, mi Amor."

"So if I went on the date looking disgusting, you wouldn't mind?"

Blu blinked.

"N-no…but I think other birds would. They might call you names behind your back, and I don't want that to happen."

"True."

Blu was relieved. He looked at Aurora and smiled.

"When you look pretty, people don't talk bad about you behind their backs."

"So you're ugly Papa."

"What?"

"Meja," said Jewel. "That's not very nice. Your Papa is very handsome."

"Yeah, but Leoncio always talks about you behind your back. Oh, yeah. Papa, what's a bastard?"

"A…what?" questioned Jewel. "Where did you hear that?"

"Well, Leoncio was mad at Papa one day because he couldn't go outside and play. He called him a bastard. I'm not sure if it was nice."

"It's not nice at all. It's a bad word."

"I didn't know words can be bad. Is it in jail now?"

"No," said Blu. "Bad words are words you shouldn't say because the negatively offend someone or something. Now, where is that boy?"

He scanned the tree den. He saw Leoncio standing near the entrance. He had overheard the conversation. Blu narrowed his eyes at him. Leoncio nervously smiled and quickly turned around. He took off out of the tree den. Blu gave chase.

Elena, Jewel, and Aurora were at the river. Jewel was giving Aurora a bath the same fashion she used to give Elena a bath. Elena was considered a big girl now. She was giving herself a bath. She looked over at her mother.

"Why did we have to separate this time?"

"Well, your father and I have a date, so we decided to surprise ourselves before we see each other."

"A date? But aren't you married?"

"Yes, but you can still have dates with the bird you are with forever."

Jewel picked up some water with her beak and dropped it on top of Aurora's head. She shivered a bit.

"It's cold."

"No, it's not," said Elena. "It's nice."

"If nice means cold, I don't like it."

"You got Blu's sarcasm," mentioned Jewel. "I don't know if that's good or bad."

"It must be good. It's from Papa."

"Not everything from Papa is good," mentioned Elena. "I remembered when Papa told us that sex was a super-secret."

"Elena!"

"What? She already knows what it is."

"No, she-"

"Mama?"

Jewel looked down.

"I know what sex is. Remember that night when I heard you and Papa making strange noises like if someone was being tortured? Well, after you went to sleep, Papa explained to me it was considered a stress-reliever for adults and was also how eggs were made."

"What! I'll have to have a word with your father."

"Mama, it's okay. Papa decided to tell me because it was supposed to be taught at a younger age in the States. There was a rumor that the black man in charge of the whole country wanted schools to teach about sex to something called kindergartners. Papa wasn't sure if it was true or not, but it was most likely true because a building called Congress had been arguing about it for years."

"Wow, the States have a building that can talk?" wondered Elena.

"I guess so. You know that humans are always making stuff up."

"I don't agree with it," said Jewel.

"But I understand now, Mama. It's better than lying to your kids about it and waiting for them to explore it on their own."

"Mm… It's just kind of weird to me."

"But Mama, I'm not confused like Elena."

"I'm not confused. I perfectly know what sex is."

"Yeah, but for the longest time, you thought it was a super-secret. You seemed very gullible as a chick."

"I was just two weeks old," replied an annoyed Elena.

"Yeah, but how long did you believe it?"

"For a few months," grumbled Elena.

"See? It's like they didn't trust you or something."

Elena was about to speak when Jewel opened her beak first.

"Aurora, why are you talking back to your sister?"

"I'm not. I'm just giving my own opinions. Is that wrong Mama?"

Jewel thought about it. Aurora was stating her opinion. She wasn't talking back the why Blu and Leoncio would. Elena waited for Aurora to get in trouble.

"I guess not."

Elena narrowed her eyes. If she had said what Aurora said, she would've been in trouble. Aurora only evaded from getting in trouble because of her cleverness. Even Leoncio wasn't as clever as her on talking. No wonder why her brothers didn't like her. This chick was clever, knowledgeable, cute, sarcastic, and a favorite of Blu, or as she had seen her to be Papa's favorite chick. Elena had always been Papa's princess, but now, it seemed she was replaced.

Jewel poured some more water on top of Aurora. She shivered a bit. Elena looked at her. Like her brothers, Elena had now tallied three strikes for Aurora. With three strikes from all three chicks, Aurora had to go.