What Kind of Friends I Can Make?/Summary

The girls find Alice sadly observing some pictures of home. She explains that she had talked on the phone with her mom the other day, and they deem her to be homesick again. Shinobu Ōmiya offers to be her mother, only to pretend to be a dog after Alice mentions thinking about Poppy. However, she assures Shino that she is happy just to have her as a friend. Yoko asks to look at her book when they spot a photo of her mom, then after looking at her breasts they deduce that Alice may take after her father instead and resume looking until they spot a strange blonde-haired girl in another photo.

Shino expresses sadness knowing that Alice had a friend back at home that she was unaware of and Yoko asks about the girl. Alice introduces them to Karen, explaining that because her family is half-Japanese, she taught her the language. She believes that Karen and Shino could be great friends and Shino perks up. Taking her book back, the girls prepare for school and head off to find the rain has stopped. Alice runs further ahead to find a rainbow and poetically describes it, causing the others to compliment her. Except for Shino; who is more interested in the boots she has on.

The next day, the girls comment that lately it seems that more foreigners have begun to show up, but they wonder if its just more obvious due to Alice being there now. Yoko recalls a strange, blonde haired girl she met the other day and while describing her, she happens to find her sitting nearby. For a moment Shino is quickly taken with her appearance and Alice recognizes her as Karen and runs over to embrace her. Aya reminds Yoko that they saw Karen in the pictures from the other day and Karen reveals that because Alice left for Japan, she asked her parents if she could come too. They believed it to be a good idea from what she told them and she hopped onto the nearest plane to get there.

When Alice sees how Shino is behaving, she reminds her that they need to hurry to school. Karen joins them while explaining that she will be attending it as well, but while there Shino finds herself entranced with Karen's long blonde hair. Alice is a bit concerned, and upon arrival she finds out that Karen isn't in the same class as the four of them, so they will need to wait until lunch to speak to her again.

By now Shino has started to notice the foul mood Alice is in, but as she brings it up Alice lies and claims herself to be fine. Karen comes by to speak with them before class begins and the girls compliment her Japanese. She mentions studying a lot and while her language is a bit broken up right now, she is hoping to become fluent, although Shino thinks the way Karen speaks broken English is much cuter, causing Alice to try to imitate it. With some time left the girls have Karen try to figure out their names to see if she remembers them. As she comes to Aya, she struggles to remember until Aya responds with "Aya yo", which is missheard as "Ayaya" by Karen. She corrects her, but by now they have all started to tease her with it.

Shino tells Karen that she is allowed to call her as Shino, and not her full name, which saddens Alice. The girls then take a moment to comment on how strange she's been behaving and right away they wonder if she is jealous. Shino remains unaware, commenting on Karen's height before bringing up that she speaks appealingly before going on to tell Alice to focus on being more confident. But given her behavior, Alice feels no better.

Later on, Aya finds Alice and Karen together. Alice was apologizing for the fact she kind of forgot to tell Karen about her plans, as she was too distracted by her desire to see Shino again. Karen mentions that because they made a promise when they were little, she just had to follow Alice to Japan. At first it is assumed to be a grand gesture; but as it turns out, she just wanted to return a pencil she borrowed.

After school ends the girls leave and come to a stop. Karen realizes that they split up here and goes on to say goodbye, as she lives in a different area. However, shock overcomes Alice when she kisses Shino, although Aya and Yoko believe it may be a foreigner thing. Angry, Alice cooly states that Japanese people normally wave goodbye.

Later, Shino and Yoko find Alice and Karen chatting in English. They are excited by this and Aya joins them as the girls suddenly resume a discussion about Taiyaki and Takoyaki.

The next day Karen is resting class when she awakens to find that she recognizes nobody there. She spots a girl nearby staring at her, but upon realizing Karen is looking at her she flees in surprise. Karen gets up and joins her friends for lunch and voices her concerns, but they assure her that making friends will take time since she just transferred there. They also point out that they might be intimidated by her since she doesn't look Japanese, even by half. This causes Alice to wonder what the others may think about her so she asks Shino, and Shino compares Karen to a lion to everyone else, who are deers.

It's then they recall that Aya transferred here in middle school, so Karen asks her for help. Aya tells her to read the situation and recalls how lonely she used to be, until meeting Shino. Shino had offered her a tour around the school and she soon met Yoko, who dragged her around the school to help her out. While this was going on, she asked to hang out with her and they have been friends since. Yoko then teases Aya by revealing how clingy she was around her, acting like an abandoned puppy. Flustered by this, Aya tries to deny it while Yoko bluntly claims it to be the truth.

Later, Yoko and Shino find Karen and Alice discussing something again. This time in Japanese, but they struggle to understand them, although they try in order to defend their honor as Japanese people. They try by saying sophisticated sounding words but still end up losing, with Alice and Karen giving them sympathetic smiles.

Karen stares intently at the attention Sakura and Shinobu gets from others and wonders if maybe the reason she isn't making many friends may have to do with her sharp eyes. Shino comes by to ask her about it, and then tells her that it takes time for people to understand each other, so she will probably make a lot of friends in due time, there's no reason to rush. Unknown to them, Alice is spying on them from a nearby bush; only to be caught by Yoko and Aya, who greet her after spotting her. She quickly tries to hide, but fails horribly.

Inside, Alice and Yoko grab something from a vending machine and come back to the others to find them trying to encourage Karen. They compliment her cool jacket, then Yoko suggests that she joins a school club. Karen asks Alice if she is one and she claims she's in a special club for Shino. Karen asks to join her and Alice voices that she is the president; but in her attempt to assert dominance the others find her too adorable and laugh at her instead. However, Karen feels better now and decides to try to speak to her classmates. They wish her luck and she takes off.

In class the teacher asks if anyone has something to say and Karen raises her hand before she approaches the front. She tells everyone that she wishes to become their friend, and she tells them that they can speak to her or ask her any questions she may have. At first all is silent, but one girl begins to clap her hands in approval and she is joined by their other classmates.

At the end of the day everyone goes to the shoe lockers. Karen talks about her day after she says farewell to two girls she met earlier, and everyone congratulates her. Alice comments that Karen was always bold, which was what she liked best about her. Until she hugs Shino, in which she yells at her and claims not to be jealous as Aya curiously watches her.

Eventually, Shino and Alice split up from Aya and Yoko. By now Aya wonders if she would have made friends sooner if she acted like Karen back in middle school, but Yoko claims that Aya's strength is her cool, calm head. She's also easy to read and pretty innocent, which causes Aya to grow very flustered again.