"Put your scissors and glue back in the buckets, please," their art teacher called. "If you didn't finish today, you can either save it for next time or take it to class and finish during free time. No more cutting, let's go!"

Mary Margaret sat very still under her table, hugging Emma close. Time to go… uh oh. She could see chairs being pushed in, and she could hear the clunk, clunk, clunk of bottles of white glue tossed back into the big blue bucket. And the trample of everyone hurrying to line up.

Thinking fast, she zipped up her jacket and stuffed Emma back inside it like she had done earlier to sneak her into art class. She tugged her hood over her head and crawled out. She snatched up her paper and dropped her scissors and glue back in their spot as she took her place near the back of the line.

"Almost finished over there?"

Mary Margaret turned around to see Rum and Belle with the little hand broom and pan, busy sweeping up a pile of golden glitter on the floor. Some of it was still on their clothes and hands, too, and she wished she had some of it because it made them look so pretty and sparkly.

"Yes," Belle called, Rum barely catching the pan before they dumped it all out again in their hurry to finish up. They emptied it into the trash, and Mary Margaret felt a little sad that all of it was wasted.

"How come your jacket's lumpy?"

She jumped a little in surprise as David stepped into line behind her. "Ssssh, Emma said she was going to cry if I left her."

Ruby was the line leader today, and she had just opened the door and everyone was about to leave, when their art teacher stopped them.

"Who was sitting here?"

Mary Margaret's eyes went wide, and she hunched down a little bit, scooting slightly behind David as their teacher looked over the line of children.

David was already twisting around to look at her. "It was you," he said, but not quietly enough because their teacher was calling her over and sending everyone else back to their classroom.

Everyone was looking at her as they walked out the door, and Rory almost walked straight into the door because she was so busy staring. Mary Margaret glared a little at her—Rory was so nosy. Slowly she walked to their art teacher and tried to look everywhere but at what the lady was holding in her hands.

"Did you bring your doll to art class today?" she asked in that voice adults used when they already knew the answer and why her teacher was holding yellow bits of yarn and maybe something wispy and dark brown.

She stopped herself just before pointing out that Emma was her baby and not a doll. Adults always looked angrier when she said that. And, yes, she knew Emma was really a doll, but she was her baby, too. Mary Margaret nodded a tiny bit. "Yes," she whispered, finally unzipping her jacket and slowly pulling out Emma.

Her teacher took the doll and brushed a finger over yellow yarn covering Emma's head. "And you cut her hair?"

Another tiny nod.

"What's our rule?"

Mary Margaret looked down at the floor, one hand covering the special ring David gave her for Valentine's day and twisting it nervously. "We only cut paper and stuff in art class for our pictures."

"And what about your doll?"

She gave a soft sigh. "She's a'sposed to stay in my cubby."

"Did you cut anything else besides paper?" this was a question.

Mary Margaret stared at the floor, trying to decide to answer when her art teacher reached up and gently pushed back the hood of her jacket. And gave a little gasp of surprise. She could feel tears welling up and finally one streaked down her face. "I didn't mean to… it just sort of.. .happened."

"Oh my…" Her teacher brushed fingers through her hair, coming up short on her left side, where her hair stopped in one part on top much sooner than the rest of it. "Why did you…"

She sniffled, rubbing her sleeve over her nose. "'cause I needed it for my people. You said to make our family, and I thought… I wanted my hair," she sniffled. "Cause you said to make it look like my hair. So I thought I could c-cut a little bit. But I cut too much." Mary Margaret sniffled again, and gave a little sob when she saw the chunk of dark brown in her teacher's hand.

Her teacher sighed. "Well, this is why we only cut paper and yarn. I'm sorry you had to learn a lesson the hard way, and I know you're upset, but hair grows back.

"I w-want it back now," Mary Margaret whimpered.

"I'm sorry, but you can't undo it," her teacher said gently. "Let's go call home to let your family know. You're probably going to have to get a hair cut tonight."

Mary Margaret pulled up the hood again as they started the long walk to the office. She kept her head down, not even daring to look up when she heard little whispers as she walked with her teacher. The other kids probably thought she was in really big trouble, and she kinda was. Maybe kids with cut hair couldn't come back anymore. She was never, ever going to break a rule again. Emma would have to stay in her cubby next time. She reached for her doll, trying to find comfort in her baby as she was ushered into a chair to wait while they called her daddy.

ONCE UPON A TIME * ONCE UPON A TIME

Mary Margaret pulled her pink hat a little lower on her head. Her nanny, Johanna, called it a beret, but she didn't care what it was called so long as it covered up her hair. What was left of her hair. She had cried the whole time the lady at the store cut it all off. It wasn't fair that Johanna made her get it cut, since she had only cut some of it, but Johanna said it would grow back and that was that.

"No hats at school!" a quiet, mean voice sneered.

She clutched her hat tightly to her head and glared at the older girl. Regina. "We're not at school, this is the bus!"

"You just have to take it off later anyway," Regina laughed, trying to tug at it anyway.

"Stop!" Mary Margaret protested. She swatted at the hand and twisted down in her seat so that Regina couldn't reach it. With a grumble, she waited impatiently while they went through two more stops before reaching the school. It wasn't fair that she had to ride the bus with mean old Regina, and besides Regina wasn't even in her right seat. She was supposed to be two rows up and over one. But she wasn't about to tattle. No way.

She had just stepped into the school when she felt her hat being lifted up, off of her head. Mary Margaret grabbed for it, but missed, and was left trying to bring up her arms to cover her head.

"You went to the principal's office yesterday," Regina scoffed, circling her as a few other students dared to scoot by, all scuttling quickly toward their classes. "You cut your hair, didn't you?" she laughed.

"I wanted short hair," Mary Margaret tried to lie, grabbing for her beret, which was promptly dangled out of reach.

A blur flew by, grabbing the beret and ducking out of Regina's path. "Leave her alone." David protested, pulling Mary Margaret toward the hallway to their class.

"You look like a boy," the older girl hissed before spotting a teacher down the hall and moving toward the other hallway where the older kids had classes.

She took her hat back from David with a sniffled thank you. When he didn't say anything, she looked up to see him staring at her very short hair as they walked. "She's right, I look l-like a boy."

He shook his head. "Boys don't wear bows in their hair," he answered simply, reaching out to lightly brush against the tiny pink bow Johanna had clipped into her hair before sending her off to school today. "And I like it," he said as they finally reached their class and started putting everything up in their cubbies. "Who cares what Regina says."

"It's still pretty," Belle offered softly as she was pulling her homework folder out of her backpack.

Rum turned to look at them and then glanced back to Belle. "But you're not going to cut your hair off, are you?" he looked like she'd said she was going to kiss a frog or something horrible.

"No," she answered, shaking her head as her curls tumbled around her shoulder. "My… my mummy always said she liked my hair to be long and shiny. But yours still looks pretty."

Mary Margaret gave her a tiny smile and gave Belle's hand a light squeeze. "I miss my mommy, too."

The smaller girl nodded and pressed her mouth in a small line before giving a soft thanks and leaving with Rum to find their spots on the carpet before school started.

"Regina just says mean things because she's bigger and thinks she's important," David said softly before leaning in and dropping a kiss to Mary Margaret's cheek. "I like your hair this way, too. And now you don't have to worry about tangles."

She nodded and gave him a little bit bigger smile this time. "Thanks, David." She took his hand now, and they started to join the others as morning announcements began.