Summary: It's been 2 years since Chihiro has come home from the world of the spirits across the river. Once she returns, she finds that things in the spirit world have changed, but that's fine, Chihiro has changed too.
"We'll meet again, right?" her voice shook as they ran toward the rocky indent that had been the plans of a riverbed.
"Of course," his deep, gray eyes met hers for a split second, and then, he was gone.
Chihiro sat up in bed.
"The same dream" she noted sleepily, rubbing her eyes as the first tendrils of daylight peered through her curtains.
For the past few weeks, Chihiro had had that dream every night.
Actually, it was more like a memory, she kept reliving that moment when she had returned from the spirit world, into the world of the living.
The brunette peered at her clock.
It was far too early to go downstairs and get ready for school.
Indeed, today, like every other day, was bound to be another monotonous repetition of her daily life.
She slid a fresh bath robe over her loose pajamas, and walked barefoot into the hallway outside of her room.
A pale, bluish purple light filled the house with its luminosity, giving a dull gray life to everything.
She stumbled into the bathroom, flipping on the light, and wincing in audible protest as the sudden yellow light hurt her eyes.
As her pupils busily dilated, Chihiro snatched up her bright red toothbrush and began to brush her teeth.
She combed her hair into a straight style and returned to her neat, well organized room.
Everything had an order to it, her morning routine, and the way she brushed her hair (usually, three times in the back, two on each side)
She smiled pleasantly, satisfied with the way that she looked.
Looking around her room, something caught her eye on her dresser.
If there was one thing in her entire life that was disorderly, it was her clothing drawers, Chihiro never bothered to clean the top of them off, because, well, she needed something out of synch with her life.
Sure, Chihiro was comfortable with her life, everything had its place, but the top of her dresser, was her one object of contrast.
She couldn't explain it when her mother asked her about it, but it was like she had to have one area of her room that went against the tide, lest she be swept away.
In any case, she crossed to the cluttered set of drawers, to investigate the gleam that had captured her attention.
She pushed some papers and an old magazine out of the way, and pulled from under a jewelry box, a hair tie.
Chihiro gasped, for this wasn't just any old hair holder, it glittered violet in the now-risen sun, this was made for her by Zeneba and her friends.
She slid the tie over her hand onto her wrist.
She looked at her clock again, now, it was time to get ready. She took off her bathrobe, hanging it on its official hanger in her closet.
Folding her pajamas, Chihiro picked out a school uniform skirt, and stepped into it, zipping up the zipper on the side.
She spun back and forth, observing how it swayed at her knees in the mirror across from her.
Satisfied, she re-entered her closet in search of a blouse.
She grabbed one off a hanger, and slid her arms in, doing the buttons up.
She usually chose the most crisp-looking top for her uniform, but lately, she had begun to just take whichever presented itself.
"Why does it matter?" she'd ask herself "They're all the same shirt, and they're all the same skirt"
After she was dressed she put her hair in the same, boring old ponytail that all the girls in her school wore.
It wasn't like they were forced to wear their hair that way, but it went without saying that everyone would wear their hair that way, looking different was frowned upon.
She placed both hands on her hips, huffing. It looked as though she was going to do something, but, she shrugged, smiled, and skipped down the stairs to the living room.
Her father was sitting in his favorite chair, the one that he always sat in, reading the paper.
That was another thing that went without saying, Chihiro's dad always, and I mean always, read the paper in the morning, sitting in that chair.
She waved to him, and he nodded back.
"Morning mom" she chirped, poking her head into the kitchen.
She walked into the room, where her mother was packing her brown paper bag lunch.
Chihiro sat down at the well lit, mahogany breakfast table.
She absentmindedly traced the patterns in the wood with her fingers before reaching for a box of cereal.
She poured a bowl of some boring flaky cereal, and crossed to the fridge, sneaking a peek at what her lunch would contain today.
She poured some milk over her cereal and returned it to it's respective shelf.
Once Chihiro had finished her breakfast, she placed her bowl in the sink, and skipped back upstairs to get her backpack.
When she entered her room, her backpack was sitting to the immediate right of the doorway, she always left it there, so that she couldn't forget it.
Personally, Chihiro didn't really know how someone could forget their backpack when they were going to school, but, she decided not to chance it.
Just as she was about to turn and leave the room, Chihiro caught a glimpse of her reflection in her mirror.
"Why am I so ordinary?" she asked herself, fussing with her ponytail.
Suddenly, an idea struck her. She fought with herself a little, but finally decided to do it.
Putting her bag back down, Chihiro examined her hair in the mirror, taking the pony tail out.
She grabbed a bunch of hair on one side of her head, and tied it up with the black, dull hair holder that had previously held intact her perfect, uniform hairstyle.
Then, grabbing the rest of her hair on the other side of her head, she tied it up with the sparkling purple hair piece that was her only memento of the spirit world.
Chihiro stepped back to admire her work, two, evenly placed pigtails swung from her head, one with a camouflaged black holder, and the other glimmering with the threads woven together by her friends.
She picked her bag up, and crept down the stairs.
Surely if her parents caught her like this, they would make her put the ponytail back in.
She ran flatfooted to the door and squeaked "Bye mom, Bye dad!"
Chihiro slipped out the door and jumped off her porch. She didn't know what had come over her.
'The normal Chihiro wouldn't have done something like that ' she told herself.
Halfway down her street, she met up with a friend.
"Hello there Mina" she said politely.
"Oh hi Chi-" the girl stopped in mid sentence "Chihiro, what did you do to your hair?!" she exclaimed worriedly.
Mina was a quiet girl, and ever since Chihiro had moved to town, they walked together to school, and never, in two years had Mina seen Chihiro be so rebellious.
"Oh, well, there isn't any rule saying we have to wear our hair like that" she nodded toward Mina's ponytail.
"Well, yea but, don't you think you'll get in trouble?" asked Mina, almost in awe.
Chihiro squirmed uncomfortably "Well, don't worry about me Mina" she said quickly.
The pair walked the rest of the way to their school without mention of Chihiro's rebellious hair style.
Personally, Chihiro hadn't thought of it as something rebellious, she was just getting tired of the same hair style, plus, she liked her hair this way.
They arrived at the school, and stowed their shoes in the tiny cubbies by the door, donning their school slippers.
As they walked down the hall to their classroom, Chihiro left a wake of whispers and gasps.
Her face turned red, she hadn't thought it would be such a big deal if she wore her hair this way.
"Oh, maybe I should just take it out" she said nervously as they stood outside the classroom.
"No don't do that Chihiro" Mina said softly "I mean, it looks pretty that way"
Chihiro smiled a little, and then nodded "Okay, I'll keep it up"
They walked into classroom 3-B and squeezed her way into one of the groups of huddled girls that spanned the classroom erratically.
"Wow Chihiro, look at your hair" grinned one girl.
"Yeah, well, its nothing really" Chihiro said in an "I don't want to talk about it" voice.
They returned to their previous gossip about a girl who had supposedly kissed a boy from the boys school down the street.
"Yeah, right on the cheek!" one girl was squealing just as the teacher walked in. "Okay okay, settle down" he said, clearing his throat.
Chihiro hightailed it to her seat, slumping down a little so as to hide from the teacher. Her attempts were to no avail, as her seat was right behind Mina, who was shorter than Chihiro.
The teacher proceeded to cross to the board and write a few math problems on it.
"This is only for a warm up girls, so please finish these up quickly so we have time to review for tomorrow's test" he said in a deep, monotone voice.
Chihiro reached into her bag for her notebook and a pencil. As she felt what she was looking for, her small digits closed around them, pulling them from her dark blue bag.
She was still slumped down in her seat.
As Chihiro began work on the problems, the teacher began to weave up and down the rows, making little comments on various girls' work.
'Oh no, why did I do this?' she kept going over and over in her head. 'Now he's definitely going to make me go to the dean'
She was sure she was trembling when he reached her desk.
"Chihiro?" he said softly.
She jumped a little "Y-yes?" she peeped.
"Why isn't your hair in a ponytail?" he asked, almost curiously.
It was his tone of voice that made Chihiro worry, it would have been better if he had just yelled at her and made her take it out.
"Well, sir, I thought it looked nice" she said almost inaudibly.
"Don't you know, students here usually wear their hair in ponytails" he said, even though it was quite apparent, and did not need reiterating.
"Yes, sir, um but I read the rulebook, and it didn't say I-" she began
"Yes, yes, there's no rule that says you have to wear you hair in a ponytail, so, I suppose its alright for you to wear it like that, but, you don't want people to think you're a delinquent, do you?" he asked.
"No sir, thank you sir" she said politely, glad to be out of the fire.
The professor passed without further ado.
Chihiro reached up and felt a pigtail. As long as she was allowed to wear them, she guessed she could really get used to how they looked on her.
The rest of math class passed without incident, and by the time the bell rang, Chihiro had answered enough questions to assure her worth.
The teacher left the room, and the girls began to talk softly as they waited for their next subject teacher to enter the room. ((Note: This system is used in several countries in Eastern Europe and Asia))
Next period was French class. The teacher, surprisingly, said nothing about her hair, but went on with the whole lesson as though Chihiro's hair was normal today.
'Maybe Mr.Nagano told her that he had allowed it' she thought.
As the next period passed, her theory was even further cemented, as this professor also did not comment on her hair.
By the time fourth period had passed, Chihiro was getting comfortable, and almost even forgot that he hair was in the pigtails to begin with.
Her calm demeanor however, was interrupted by a single fact.
"Chihiro" Mina was turned around in her seat "Aren't you scared?" she asked.
"Scared of what?" Chihiro asked "All of the teachers have been really nice to me"
Mina looked uncomfortable "Yeah, but, Mrs. Chinsuke is next, we've got history, remember?"
The color drained from Chihiro's face. Mrs. Chinsuke was the strictest teacher in the school, everyone didn't like her.
Now, suddenly Chihiro was scared all over again. What would Mrs. Chinsuke do?
It seemed that the other girls were thinking something along the same lines, as they were apparently restless.
When Mrs. Chinsuke entered the room, everyone fell silent. Chihiro slid down in her chair even more.
She looked like the wicked witch of the west, melting down lower and lower.
Mrs. Chinsuke walked to the board and began writing a goal for the day. She had only scanned the class, and hadn't paid close attention to any one of her students.
Chihiro was going over her excuses in her mind, even planning escape routes.
She scribbled the aim for the day into her notebook, moving her hand as little as possible, as though that would make her less noticeable.
Mrs. Chinsuke began a lecture on absolutism, going on about the different effects and whatnot.
Still moving her hand as little as possible Chihiro took notes.
"And so, within an absolutist country, the monarch often-" Mrs. Chinsuke stopped in mid-sentence.
Chihiro, who was staring very hard at her abdomen, could feel all the other girls looking at her.
Mrs. Chinsuke looked at Chihiro curiously, her lip curling a little bit.
"Chihiro, see me after class" she said quietly, and with only that, she turned away from Chihiro and continued her lesson.
Chihiro's eyes were stinging, and there was a lump in her throat.
She had never been in trouble with a teacher before, and she felt a deep sinking shame come over her face.
She could barely pay attention to the lesson, and didn't take any notes.
When the bell rang, dismissing them to lunch, Chihiro sat still, remaining in her seat.
She looked straight at the floor, her eyes watering a little, and her face hot and red. This was so humiliating.
Mrs. Chinsuke turned to face her after erasing the board slowly and deliberately.
"I see that you have your hair in pigtails today Chihiro" she said blankly.
"Yes Mrs. Chinsuke" she said slowly "but, all of my other teachers said, that, that it would be alright"
Chihiro's cheeks were pink, and she was going her best to avoid eye contact with Mrs. Chinsuke.
"You know if you keep up this unique behavior, you might actually start to think" she said.
Chihiro was already hanging her head in shame when she realized what her teacher had said.
"I…what?" she asked absently.
"Well, you heard me," said Mrs. Chinsuke, sitting on the desk opposite Chihiro's.
"Every little girl in this school is so scared to do anything that might go against the grain" she said, her voice soft and dreamy.
"Oh, um, yeah" Chihiro said lamely, still nonplussed as to why she wasn't being scolded.
She looked over Mrs. Chinsuke's shoulder, watching the schoolyard in the sunlight.
"You know, if you girls only think how I tell you, if you only know what you read in a textbook, then, sure you'll be smart, but, you wont be free" Mrs. Chinsuke continued.
Chihiro nodded, looking at her now, it was clear she wasn't going to be scolded.
"Thank you Ms. Chinsuke" she said, lowering her head slightly.
"No need to thank me, I was once a girl your age too" she said "A long, long time ago"
Chihiro stood, nodding.
"Just, don't tell the other girls I'm not so mean okay?" she joked.
Chihiro laughed nervously, then darted from the room, toward the cafeteria.
She entered the noisy room unnoticed, and sat with her friends. She was glad to see that her usual seat was still unoccupied.
It was only after a few minutes of small talk that she noticed, in her rush to leave the house, she had forgotten to take her lunch with her.
Frowning, and slumping her shoulders a little, she sighed.
'Whenever this day gives me something nice, there's always a let down to follow' she thought.
"Chihiro, what's the matter?" asked Lena, the girl Chihiro usually sat beside.
"Oh, I forgot my lunch is all" she said quietly.
Mina offered Chihiro a rice ball, and another girl, Tracey gave her some of her sushi. Chihiro accepted the hodge-podge meal with bright red cheeks. "Thanks guys"
Luckily for Chihiro, the rest of the day was uneventful, from their free time outdoors, through English, Japanese, and Science.
When the final bell rang, the girls hurried to do their chores, and clean up the schoolhouse before donning their own shoes and bursting from the building.
"Wow Chihiro" Mina ogled, doting over her friend as the walked home "You were so cool today!" she said.
Chihiro blushed as a few other girls gathered around her. "I can't believe you didn't get in trouble with Mrs. Chinsuke!" said Yume, who wore big glasses.
"Oh, I feel so excited, its like we…stuck it to the man!" marveled Gina, who's bright blue eyes sparkled more than usual "Like, like in those songs" she whispered.
"Oh quiet, WE didn't do anything" said Alison cynically "Chihiro was the one who wore her hair different, and it wasn't exactly another Tiananmen Square "
Chihiro nodded "I, I don't think I'll do it again" she said.
"No, you have to, we were all talking about doing it with you!" exclaimed Mina.
Chihiro was saved a response as her house came up beside them.
"Oh, well, I guess I'm home" she said pathetically, breaking from the group and hurrying up to her front door.
Once she was within the safety of her own house, she slid to the ground, slumping against the door.
Chihiro let out an exasperated sigh, and took her shoes off, placing her backpack on its rung, and walking to the kitchen, she grabbed an apple, and started munching.
"Boy, I never realized how important lunch is" she said, devouring the fruit.
Chihiro made a mental note to feel bad for the "less fortunate" kids who didn't have enough to eat.
Tossing the core into the garbage, Chihiro ran up the stairs to examine herself.
In the mirror, her left pigtail had sagged. She straightened out her hair, and admired the violet hair holder.
Chihiro let an unusually heavy sigh out, nobody was in the house to say "What's the matter Chichi?"
She thought that it really didn't feel much like a Friday to her, she hadn't gotten any homework, and there simply wasn't a Friday air to the whole thing.
"I know" she announced to her bear, Jularlmin "I'll take a walk to make me feel more liberated"
Needless to say, the bear did not respond.
"Well, Jularlmin?" she giggled "You're quiet today"
With that, Chihiro packed a few necessities into a bag, and slung it over her shoulder.
Her mother always told her not to wear her backpack on only one shoulder. "Its bad for that shoulder" she would say.
This was partially why she was wearing it on one shoulder to begin with, 'because Fridays mean freedom' she reminded herself as she tromped down the stairs.
Armed with a bottle of water, and her red backpack, Chihiro slid the key out from under the pot, locking up, but not before leaving a short note, just incase anybody got home before her.
She wandered down the street, her light blue house shrinking away.
Chihiro slowly entered a more wooded area. "This used to be a Shinto shrine" she noted, as she passed a beat up archway.
A soft smile crossed Chihiro's calm face as she got deeper into the thin woods.
She was beginning to feel more relaxed, and she looked up at the treetops which were streaming down thin strands of sunlight from above her.
After about 20 seconds, Chihiro tripped over a root.
Chihiro stopped looking at the sky and paid more attention to where she was going.
After about 15 minutes of walking, she sat on a rock on the side of a medium sized forest trail. Chihiro took a swig of her water.
She contemplated weather the trail was for travelers on foot, or else for very narrow cars.
Out of curiosity, she rose from the rock and began to follow the dirt trail.
"It sure is bumpy" she sighed, "It must be for joggers or something"
As she walked for a few more minutes, Chihiro's interest dwindled, and she checked her watch. It was getting kind of late.
She shrugged, and turned around, but just before she did, a little flicker of light, white, bright light caught her eye about 5o yards down the trail.
She placed her hands on her slender hips and pursed her lips.
"Yeah, why not?" she breathed, heading down the path just a little more to see what the light was, if anything.
"And I really need to stop talking to myself" she said…to herself.
Her sneakers made a crunchy sound on the tan, grainy walk of the path.
Once she got a little closer, she could see that the light was coming from near a clearing in the woods.
'That's weird' she thought, 'I don't remember seeing this before'
She had explored these woods frequently during the summer break, but had never come across any clearings.
Once she was close to the end of the trail, she was actually really excited to see what mysteries this area held.
Chihiro burst from the tree line with a smile on her face, but stopped very quickly.
Her eyes followed the trail apprehensively, meeting a short stone bust of a spirit with moss growing over its worn gray surface.
The sun was streaming in full blast, and she could hear the winds howling stories to each other.
Her eyes rose above eye level, to the large red structure before her.
"This used to be an amusement park" she said, though she wasn't really talking to herself. It was more like she was remembering.
Now Chihiro knew why her curiosity had brought her here, to the same place she had come about 2 years ago.
It was time for Chihiro to return to the spirit world.