What Day is Today?/Summary

With the cultural festival coming up Alice is very excited since it will be her first. However, she has the wrong idea as to what the festival will really be like. Aya mentions the struggle the class is having at the time, unable to decide between a Maid Cafe and a traditional Japanese type. Alice and Shino both support the opposite one due to their culture interests and they start to argue, even making threats and attempting to manipulate the other with tears. Yoko decides in this case the best thing to do would be to combine the ideas, and they agree to this while Aya is left annoyed.

After school, Karen reveals her class will be putting on a play. She gets to be in it, but she stays quiet regarding the role she will play to make a bigger impact.

In the faculty office, Sakura listens to a man explaining how funny teachers are pretty popular right now. She leaves the room and thinks it over as Aya approaches to hand in the festival application form. Delighted, Sakura attempts to tell Aya a joke and get an opinion on it, but to her concern Aya couldn't tell it was a joke. So she takes off to tell Yoko instead.

Later, Shino and Alice are busy cutting Kintaro candies. Shino sees how happy Alice looks and questions it until Alice comments on how much Shino resembles the kintaro face.

The following day at school, Alice joins Shino at one of the desks to work on a menu together. Yoko comes by to pick up Aya to grab the materials, and they are joined by a few other classmates. Upon arrival the girls head off to pick up the tea while she and Aya get the food items. At one point Yoko says something, causing a flustered Aya to snap at her after they witness a couple discussing the same thing Yoko had just brought up. They make sure to get flour, canned red beans, and some chocolate, but they are surprised to spot Sakura nearby. They stop to speak to her for a moment and she mentions coming for some snacks, causing Yoko to tease her by saying she will she may get fat if she eats too many; until learning that Sakura only purchases Tofu snacks.

Upon return, a pair run up to Aya to ask her if she would be willing to try on the costume they made for her. Aya is surprised to see that she will be wearing a maid uniform, having assumed she would get the Asian gown, but the other girls reveal they weren't informed of this. While flustered, Aya is told by Yoko to just try it out, especially with no choice now.

While preparing for bed that evening, Shino comments on how tired she is from all of the hard work they did. She is highly excited though, and Alice agrees, asking Shino if she remembers what day it is. When Shino is unable to, Alice grabs the nearby calendar to show her the marking on it. She voices disappointment after Shino continues to struggle, then claims to remember despite being unable to back it up. Alice tells her to just forget it and runs over to her bed, suddenly annoyed with her friend. Shino, sensing this tries to force herself to stay awake to try to remember, and by the time Alice decides to just tell her, she is shocked to find Shino already asleep.

The next day Alice comes to school in a cranky mood. The others question it but she refuses to speak about the topic, leaving Shino to explain that Alice is upset with her for being unable to remember what anniversary is being held that day. They make an attempt to guess but also fail and Shino formally announces that she gives up. Seeing how sad she is, Alice feels badly and claims it to be okay, although Shino disagrees and demands Alice smack her until she remembers. Alice is unable to do this however, and they sit down as Alice reveals that today marks the very day that Shino came to stay with her family back in England. Whenever this day would approach they held a special dinner for Shino's honor. Shino is very touched by the gesture, but the others discuss the idea of special yearl events and Alice decides to hold off on the present she intended to give Shino.

Later the girls have changed into their maid costumes. While Shino really lieks her's Aya is still embarrassed by it. The others comment on how cute she is but this only bothers her. While they wait for customers to show up, Shino and Alice admire the food and drinks they made for the event. As this is going on, Yoko insists that Aya act like a proper maid and tries making her join the others as they spot customers. Aya struggles to speak properly while Shino takes some of the chocolate covered dumplings to Sakura. She tries them, but comments on how spicy they are and Shino suddenly recalls that she added wasabi to one of the dumplings because she wanted to see what it was like. However, she is unable to admit it was her doing so instead simply tries to throw blame on some random nobody by asking how or why they would do this.

Karen pays the girls a visit later in the day and comments on how cute the outfits look before expressing her own interest in wearing one. Just then, Isami comes inside with a friend, wearing a disguise while she takes pictures of the girls from her seat. She is surprised to find Aya and Yoko in the opposite outfits than what was expected and calls to Aya, who upon finding her watching them hides behind Yoko. Yoko makes an attempt to ask the strange woman not to take pictures, but they express surprise after realizing it's Shino's older sister. Isami comments on how cute Alice looks before bringing up the outfits between Yoko and Aya, wondering why they weren't in the other outfits. Aya makes an attempt to explain what happened, but the others assure her that she looks fine again. Isami then asks Karen what her class is doing and Karen brings up the play again, asking Isami to come and see it.

Eventually the shift for the festival is almost over. The girls are surprised by how fast it went, so they decide to go and check out the other goings-on throughout the school. They see comedy routines and people in animal costumes before meeting back up with Karen and sharing snacks. They also pay a visit to the arts and crafts room, walk through the horror house, and enjoy more snacks and drinks as Karen takes off.

Shino eventually asks Alice what she thinks about the festival, and Alice voices how much fun it was. However, Aya points out they didn't really do much else besides eat food. She then expresses her love of the story "Snow White" when they try to determine what story Karen's class is basing their play off of and head into the room to get seated. To their shock, they find Karen is playing the role of a samurai trying to save the dead Snow White. The play is highly unique, and ends up being disastrous.

When the festival concludes, Aya hesitates to erase the sign she is near and expresses sadness in knowing the festival is over. Meanwhile, Alice and Shino are cleaning off the classroom board when Alice recalls she has yet to give Shino her gift. She struggles each time she approaches, only to scare Shino when she is only able to say shi each time until she's worked up after realizing school is over and she has still not given the gift yet.

To her surprise, she is then approached by Shino, who asks her to come with her to throw away trash. As the two girls walk down the long corridor, Alice makes the move to hand Shino the gift and asks her to accept it. Curiously, Shino opens the box and Alice explains that she wanted to get it for her because of the hair pins she wears now being a present from Shino so many years back. In the box is a big red ribbon with white spots all over it and right away Shino falls in love with it, promising to wear it every day since Alice does the same with her pins.

Then they head back to class, where Shino gets teased by the way she chose to wear the bow. She takes it off and questions if maybe it wasn't the right type of bow, causing Alice to get upset since she thought it looked nice.