Ah, Chiyo-chan. She seems to have everything handed to her, but, she's still a little kid who attends high school. My own sister is ten, and even if she were as smart as Chiyo, I wouldn't want her going to high school. Anyway, I wrote this thinking about that episode where Tomo is teasing her and she takes her hair out of the pigtails.

Child of Wisdom

Today is the day Chiyo Mihama will let her hair down.

It just feels right. After all, she isn't just a child anymore. She's a high school student. If she acts like a high school student, shouldn't she look like one, too? Pigtails are cute, but they just don't radiate maturity. It shouldn't be such a big, big thing to wake up in the morning and brush your hair and then just leave it as it is. After all, people change their hairstyles all the time. All the time.

Chiyo slides out of bed so early in the morning her mother and father are still asleep, and she pads across her large, uncluttered bedroom. Mr. Tadakichi knows this routine by heart, in the way that only a dog can. He won't whine to be let outside until Chiyo has finished doing her hair in the bathroom and woken up her parents.

With each step she takes, the thought dances across her mind. Today's the day! Today's the day!

Chiyo stares at herself in the bathroom mirror, looking for signs of adulthood. Or at least young adulthood, which her friends have already embraced. Even Osaka—she doesn't have much of a figure, but you can tell she's in high school, at least. It's something in the face. Chiyo searches her own body for a difference—the slope of her cheeks, the hollow of her throat—and knows with a mixture of relief and disappointment that she is still an eleven-year-old today.

Honestly, she's not sure whether she wants to grow up or not. It all seems like such a bittersweet hassle—Tomo worrying over her bust size, Yomi trying every new diet that comes around, Sakaki growing so tall that everyone stares… As much as she dreads those days of finding things about herself that she hates, Chiyo wants to walk into the classroom and have something in common with all the other girls. Anything.

Chiyo brushes her hair and then models for Mr. Tadakichi, smiling and saying, "Oh, it was just time for a change, that's all." She flips her hair over her shoulder, enjoying how free it feels, just falling around her face, not trapped up in pigtails. Not today.

She can just imagine what the others will say. Yomi will smile indulgently at little Chiyo, much like a mother smiles when her child does something "grown up" just for the sake of doing it. Sakaki won't understand anything but Chiyo's need to break away. Osaka will either be ecstatic or horrified. Kagura will laugh, not meanly, but she'll laugh all the same. And Tomo… Tomo will tease her, and that's the worst, the one thing she can't deal with like a grown up.

All day long, other girls, Kaorin and Chihiro and the rest, they'll ask Chiyo why she's not wearing her hair in pigtails anymore. It was so cute, they'll sigh. Exactly. Exactly. It was so cute, and Chiyo is more than just cute. More than just a mascot, more than just a child.

Chiyo stares at herself in the mirror and feels that confidence slip away. Just a twinge of doubt, but it's there all the same. She wonders if today is really the best day to stop wearing pigtails. The best day might be, in fact, tomorrow. Or, actually, the best time to do it might be right at the start of school after Spring break. In fact, she could start wearing her hair down during Spring break and just continue once school starts up again. That way, it won't be so sudden. There will be less of a fuss made over her. Yes, planning ahead is good. Spontaneity can cause problems, unforeseen annoyances.

Chiyo puts her hair up in pigtails again today, and every day. But she's counting on Spring break.

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