That morning, like every day, Derek had taken the car out of the garage. While waiting for Olive to finish getting ready and come out, he saw the crow that had been bothering him for days perched on one of the trees near their bedroom.

He couldn't possibly understand what it wanted and why it kept insisting on entering the master bedroom. He had never seen a bird so persistent before.

"Olive, hurry up... we're gonna be late," he shouted into the house.

"There's no more orange juice!" the little girl said from inside.

"We'll buy some on the way. I'll wait for you in the car."

"WAH," the crow cawed.

"What was that?"

"WAH."

"Did you hear that, Ols?"

"What thing?" she said, hurrying out the door.

"I think that crow said hi to me."

"There is no more orange juice!"

"I know, we'll go to the supermarket later. I'll buy you one for today on the way. Are you ready?"

"Yes..."

"Okay, get in and put on your seatbelt," he said, not taking his eyes off the crow.

~•~

Olive had always been a loving and charming girl, anyone who spent time with her could tell. She had a warm and fun personality, which made you feel at ease around her. She was friendly, nice, and fun.

From a very young age, she had shown great empathy towards people and animals. She always cared that everyone around her was well, and whenever she saw someone sad, she did every possible thing to help.

She was a very intelligent and curious girl. She had learned to speak and read at a very early age. She understood deep conversations and made suitable responses with a speed that often surprised those who did not know her. She had a large vocabulary, knew how to use synonyms, conjugated verb tenses well in general, and handled pronouns well. This was partly due to Addison and Derek, who had stimulated her with educational books since she was a baby. There was not a single night they did not read to her, sometimes adventure books, other times fairy tales. They even showed her medical books.

She liked going to her parents' library and taking encyclopedias and medical manuals. She knew and could locate most parts of the body, with their real names. She knew about some diseases and pathologies. In a very simplified way, she knew what her parents' work consisted of and how they helped people every day. And she was sure she would do the same in the future.

Olive was also very creative and dreamy, as every Aquarius. She had no difficulty inventing hundreds of scenarios in her head while playing. She loved princesses madly, especially Ariel and Rapunzel. She loved to dress up, wear long and elegant dresses, steal her mother's heels, and paint herself with makeup until she looked like a clown.

But at the same time, she had no problem getting into the mud to play with the frogs. She loved the earth in all its presentations. She could spend hours preparing meals with mud and leaves, building sandcastles, or having "mud baths at her spa." It did not disgust or scare her.

She liked to collect colored rocks, leaves, and flowers. Addison had taught her a technique for drying the flowers in a book and then framing them in her room. That was what she liked doing the most. She loved that kind of craft.

She also enjoyed cooking, something she clearly had not inherited it from her parents. Whenever she was with her grandmother Carolyn, they made all kinds of cakes, muffins, pancakes, pies, and desserts together. She loved sweets.

She liked dancing ballet. Since she was three years old, her parents had taken her to a dance academy, where she felt the happiest in the world. She also swam because she had always been restless and crazy about water. Despite her denial, her parents were convinced that she was a hidden mermaid. It was the only explanation they could find for her aquatic prowess and passion for being submerged.

She loved summer and spring, Derek had promised her that next summer they would build a pool in their backyard, and she was counting the days left.

That's how Olive was. Friendly, intelligent, creative, and energetic. Loving and lively. Fun and mischievous, but of noble heart. A delightful whirlwind.

But all these qualities were not precisely what the kindergarten principal mentioned when she called her mother that morning to pick her up.

"Here I am, sorry for the delay," Addison said, entering the office, carrying a sleeping Arleth in her arms.

"Good morning, Mrs. Montgomery Shepherd," the woman greeted very cordially from her desk. Addison sat in the chair in front, still agitated from leaving in a hurry.

"What did Olive do?"

"We called her because your daughter, in the middle of an argument, bit one of her classmates on the arm."

"Excuse me? Olive bit someone?" she asked, surprised. She had never done anything like that.

"It happened during breakfast time, apparently there was a problem with a juice, and Olive reacted violently. The child has already been treated in the infirmary and is fine, fortunately."

"My God... I will talk to her. I'm so sorry. I... I don't know what to say."

"We have decided to suspend Olive from activities for three days."

"Why suspend her? That seems like too much."

"We do not want to expose the other children to her violent behavior. We have to maintain safety in the classroom."

"Excuse me," a sarcastic laugh escaped her mouth, "she's a five-year-old, not a criminal."

"That kind of reaction indicates a violent behavior that could be potentially dangerous."

"Listen, I'm a doctor. Children go through these kinds of stages throughout their development, it's completely normal. I will talk to her, but there is no need to suspend her, I will make sure she never does it again."

"Mrs. Montgomery Shepherd, you are not understanding the seriousness of the matter."

"No, the one who doesn't understand is you. My daughter is not violent!"

"Perhaps she needs to see a therapeutic or psychological counselor to help her channel this anger in a way that does not involve hurting her classmates. The sooner childhood traumas are detected and treated, the better the outcomes."

"Olive does not need any psychologist. She's not an aggressive person!" she said, shouting.

The principal looked at her in silence with a raised eyebrow.

"Excuse me," Addison whispered, realizing that she had exceeded her tone of voice, "I'll talk to her. We are in a time of changes, my husband just took on a new job, my baby was born a month ago, and I... we may not be giving Olive a lot of attention, yes. But she's not a violent child, God. She's the most tender and loving person that exists and..."

"I believe everything you say, but at this moment her behavior doesn't reflect that. She is suspended for three days and if she doesn't change her behavior, she will be invited to leave the institution."

The principal handed her the sanction report, and Addison signed it, very angry. After that, she left the office and went to pick up Olive, who was in the detention room.

"Mommy..." she said with teary eyes as soon as she saw her.

"Let's go, Olive."

"I swear it's not as the principal told you!" she exclaimed, crying.

"Don't throw a tantrum here. Take your backpack and let's go. On our way home, we will talk about what happened."

~•~

"Some species of crows, such as the one from New Caledonia, have been studied and it is known that they can imitate not only the human voice but also various anthropogenic sounds such as laughter and sneezing, thanks to the fact that the individuals interacted with the researchers and had the sounds produced by them as a reference. These birds, in addition, possess higher intelligence than other species or groups of birds, as they are capable of memorizing, solving problems, planning a task (a capacity that was previously thought to be limited to primates), and using and manufacturing different tools that allow them to access food."

Derek was reading information about crows on his laptop. In his mind, he was convinced that the crow had said "hi", it hadn't been a common caw, it had sounded different and the internet sources confirmed that indeed, these birds were able to imitate sounds. They could be trained to speak and communicate certain phrases. And that crow had said something... did that mean it wasn't a wild crow? Who had taught it that? Had someone left it there to listen and then repeat? Who left it there?

"Chief..." Bailey said, peering through his office door.

"Oh, Miranda," Derek quickly closed his laptop and looked at her.

"We need you in the conference room. The medical board is here to discuss the Rachel Dallas case."

"I'll be there."

~•~

"It wasn't my fault," Olive said, crying, sitting in the back seat of the car.

"What happened? Did you bite that kid?" Addison asked, looking at her through the rearview mirror.

"Yes..."

"Why did you do that, Olive? We are not animals, we don't bite people."

"Because he took the juice that dad bought for me!"

"You bit him over juice?"

"He was drinking it! And I couldn't take it from him!"

"So you bit him..."

"IT WAS MINE!"

"I know it was yours, Olive. But you can't bite like an animal. Things don't get solved that way."

"BUT HE DESERVED IT, THAT SON OF A BITCH"

"Olive! Don't use bad words. Did you know that your principal suspended you?"

"What is that?"

"You won't be able to go to kindergarten for three days."

"Good."

"What you did was not right at all. You should have gone to your teacher and told her that he was bothering you. You didn't have to bite him. In life, things don't get solved by resorting to violence. If you do it again, you'll be expelled from kindergarten!"

Olive continued crying inconsolably, and her crying woke up her sister who was lying in the baby seat next to her.

"I can't drive with two girls screaming, you're distracting me and we're going to have an accident. Please, be quiet, Olive."

"BUT I WAS CRYING FIRST, SHE COPIED ME!"

"Well, cry quietly."

"I CAN'T, MY HEART IS SUFFERING!"

Addison sighed impatiently and parked the car as soon as she found an available spot, clearly the shouting would continue for a while.

~•~

After his workday came to an end, Derek quickly packed up and headed home. He needed to quickly find his wife to tell her everything he had found out that afternoon and warn her about what was happening.

"Addison, we're being watched. They're listening to our conversations," he said as he entered through the front door.

She was in the kitchen washing Arleth's bottles when she saw him arrive.

"What are you saying, Derek?"

"The crow is a spy! It has an owner who trained it and sends it to our home to steal information. Did you know it said hi to me?"

"Are you kidding me? Do I look like I'm in the mood for your jokes right now? Why didn't you answer my calls?"

"It's not a joke! Crows talk! Well, technically they don't talk, they just imitate sounds. They can recognize and mimic them, just like parrots. They can't learn the words on their own, they need someone, a trainer, to teach them. The crow that's been lurking around the house said hi! I heard it perfectly and..."

"Olive is suspended!" she interrupted impatiently.

"What?"

"Three days of suspension for biting a child."

"Ols did that?"

"Yes."

"No, impossible. Olive doesn't bite, she's almost six years old. Those are things babies do."

"I'm telling you she did, Derek. She bit a boy who took her juice."

"A boy took her juice?!" he repeated angrily.

"The problem isn't the juice, it's our daughter's behavior."

"Olive did the right thing, she shouldn't allow a bratty kid to steal her things."

"Derek!"

"It's the truth, Addison. She defended herself, I would have done the same."

"God, you're unbelievable. Is that the example you want to set for our daughter? If someone takes something from you, you respond with a beating?"

"And you want to teach her to just let people walk all over her?"

"I'm not saying that! I want to teach her there are other ways to solve problems and violence will never be one of them. She should have told her teacher, and let her deal with the boy."

"She's got three days of suspension?"

"Yes."

"Well, it's not that much."

"It's not that much? She'll miss almost a week of classes."

"So what? Like she needs it. They do stupid things with playdough and colored stick figure drawings. She won't miss much."

"You're unbelievable, Derek. I'm speechless."

"What do you want me to do? Ground her? I still don't think she did anything wrong."

"But she did!"

"Did the boy need stitches?"

"No, but..."

"Then it'll heal in less than a week. It was nothing. He learned the lesson not to mess with our daughter."

"Derek, the lesson..."

"We have a crow lurking around! I have to figure out where it's coming from. That's a concerning problem, not preschool."

Addison impatiently let out a sigh and left. She couldn't continue arguing with Derek about something he clearly didn't see and on top of that, he was trying to distract her with nonsense.