Almost Summer Vacation/Summary

Up and ready for school, Shinobu exits her home to find Alice laying water down on the walk. They discuss how they have been faring in the summer weather so far before heading off to join the others.

With time to spare, the girls head up to the roof for a chat. Yoko is really excited, since she feels like she didn't get to do anything that she intended on doing the year prior. Although they had fun visiting the mountains and going to the Festival, Yoko really wants to do more active things to help burn energy. But seeing how heated she has become, Aya sticks a cooling patch onto her forehead to shut her up for a moment. She voices the importance of planning, so Alice asks them what they even wanted to do. Yoko wants to head out to the beach, but Karen suggests something random like skydiving. They start to bicker until Karen eventually gives in, and noticing the lukewarm responses, Alice asks Shino if she dislikes the beach. Shino recalls that she was once attacked by a hermit crab when she was little, but the girls don't share her anxiety.

Meanwhile, Aya is concerned since she isn't really good at swimming, nor does she feel confident enough to put on a swimsuit. Alice questions if she may not have one, not realizing what bothered her until a moment later, realizing that Aya is unsure if she has a good body type for a swimsuit, Yoko grabs her waist, much to her shock. Aya darts away from her friends while Yoko and Alice attempt to bring comfort. She grabs both of their waists to tickle them for revenge; causing Karen to remark that she's as scary as an angry mom. Aya stops after wearing the girls out and reminds the group that they still have a final exam next week to prepare for. As soon as she brings it up, Shino, Karen, and Yoko get depressed.

By the time school comes to an end, Karen, Aya, and Shino come to Yoko and Alice's class to pick them up and head home. Right away Aya spots the pair of glasses Yoko put on, and she claims that she looks much smarter with them on, so she is sure they can help her test scores. After being criticized by Aya for trying to take shortcuts, she asks if she would help her study. Aya agrees and suggests they stop by somewhere on the way home first. Karen suggests they pick up an eater, and Aya becomes convinced they aren't even motivated to study. Yoko claims she is very serious though, then admits she grabbed a pair of prescription glasses instead of the fake ones, causing Aya to call her an idiot.

The girls go out to a Hamburger Place, but before they go in, a little girl runs into Shino. The girl pulls back and apologizes to her Grandmother for running on ahead, but Shino takes this as a sign that the little girl thought she was an old lady. Seeing her depressive state, Alice quickly yells at her to try to snap her out of it, but it doesn't seem to work as the girls go inside and find somewhere to sit. After Aya and Yoko return with their food, the other three go up to place in their own orders; however, Alice is confused since she never ordered fast food in Japan before. She has done it back at home, but she doesn't know if they do it the same and she attempts to watch Karen.

Karen starts out normal, requesting a chicken sandwich with cola, but she throws in something random at the end of her order after she catches Alice watching her. At first Alice is confused, and she tries to get help from Shino- but she's totally clueless, leaving her on her own to figure it out. Speaking to the woman at the counter, Alice asks for the Cheeseburger meal, then she throws in the suggestion Karen made. After doing so, she watches as Shino starts to laugh, flustering her greatly upon realizing it was a trick. She quickly returns to the table with her items, then tells Karen off for playing am ean trick on her. She apologizes and with that, everyone starts eating until they happen to catch Karen look around suspiciously. Aya and Yoko ask if something might be wrong and she recalls an interest in working there and decides she would be great for the job, since she can be really loud when she would need to be, and as she goes to demonstrate Yoko quickly stops her. She lectures her for yelling and threatens her by saying a monster will come to rid of bad behaving children; to her surprise, this effectively quiets her- and Alice.

To make conversation, Shino asks Alice what sort of job she would like and Alice reveals she would want a job that only Japanese people do, like New Year card sorting. Aya voices an interest in the idea of being a Shrine Maiden and the group go on to admit that Shino would make a good one; although she wants a western job, one opposite of Alice's. As they continue to chat, Aya watches a couple nearby and starts to wish that she could experience the same sort of thing with Yoko, though she isn't very happy with the idea of getting her clothing dirty. While she believes sacrifices need to be made, she is unable to do it and chickens out, causing Yoko to question her weird behavior.

Soon the girls finish and Alice and Shino realize they might be too full to eat dinner now, but they weren't able to call ahead to let Shino's mom know. Karen offers to let them use her phone, and Alice attempts to call; only to realize she doesn't know how to work the phone. She thinks Karen may be teasing her again, but Karen claims she isn't and they go outside to make the call while pointing out which buttons to press and as the girls are doing this, Aya remarks that she believes Alice may have gotten a little taller since they met her. Yoko and Shino don't agree though, causing Aya to wonder if she was just mistaking.

After the two blondes return, Aya brings up her curiosity with Alice, which makes her feel happy until Aya adds that it was only a mistake. To try to perk her up, Yoko suggests that while Alice may not have grown, her mind has; though none of the girls can see how this would help anything. Aya suddenly brings up that it had been over a year since Alice was in England, but Alice claims it's fine since since she can talk to her parents every day on the phone. She does miss her family, but she would miss Shino a lot too and can't just return home now. Shino suggests that Alice go home for a visit and claims that while she will miss Alice, she should let her parents see how much she has grown, and as it turns out, Karen reveals that she will be visiting England with her parents during the summer, so she tells Alice she can join them. Alice agrees, but only if it's for a few days. It's then she suggests Shino coming with her- but Shino refuses, not wanting to get in the way of the Cartalet family time. She starts to compare Alice to the way she used to know her when they were younger, then brings up the current her, but the analogy fails after Alice points out she chose the wrong animal to represent it.

Suddenly, Aya recalls that they never studied. Right away, Yoko and Karen pull on a pair of prescription glasses again. But in the end, this pays them no help when they, along with Shino did awful on the exam, while Aya and Alice did "not bad".

Later, the class is preparing for the Closing Ceremony on the first semester. Aya works to help the others but when Shino and Karen refuse to do anything, she balls up the cleaning cloth and throws it at Karen, hitting her in the forehead while yelling at her to clean up. With no choice they work with Aya and Karen asks if she likes to clean, or if maybe she's a cleanliness freak. As Yoko is walking by, Shino mentions that clean freaks don't like being touched, so curiously, Yoko touches Aya to see how she responds. She is quick to curse and start trying to push her out of the door, telling her to go back and clean her own classroom while Karen and Shino discuss the results.

In their classroom, Yoko finds Alice moping with her cloth- which now have a large burn in it after she tried to iron it. By now it's even dirtier than what it was to begin with, and while she intended to confess to Shino what happened, she ended up panicking and hid it from her instead. As Yoko asks her about being honest with Shino, they are joined by their teacher, Akari and Alice explains what happened to her. Sadly, Akari informs her it isn't going to be mend-able now, so she suggests Alice should sincerely apologize and offers to come with her for support. Alice agrees and they track down Shino, where Alice hands the handkerchief over and quickly apologizes. At first Shino is confused, voicing that she thought maybe it blew away in the wind, then she takes the handkerchief and turns it around, pointing out to Alice that the burn mark resembles Australia- which makes her very happy. The girls embrace while Akari watches from the background, wondering what she just witnessed.

In the hallway, Honoka is cleaning when she spots Karen's hair touching the floor in the nearby room. She slowly holds it up for her to help, and at first it seems fine until Aya catches her standing behind Karen and asks what she is doing; alerting Karen to her presence.

Aya is tasked with dumping out some trash when she happens to realize Yoko is next to her. From the surprise she starts yelling, which surprise Yoko and she starts to yell in response. Yoko calls her clumsy while they make their way back, and when they reach the classroom, Aya asks Yoko to play a game of Shiritori with her. At first it goes well, but when the bell rings the girls are forced to separate as Aya struggles to think of a word. It suddenly comes to her and she grabs onto Yoko's skirt to stop her, so Yoko tries to tell her they have to quit as she tells her the word she thought of.

Eventually the day has come to an end. Sakura and Akari have both left a message on the board for their students before going and everyone leaves the school, excited for vacation. The girls stop at town, with Aya, Shino, and Alice going to purchase swimsuits, while Karen will be going out to eat with her parents and Yoko passes on hanging out to take her younger siblings home.

At the shop, the girls observe the swimsuits as Alice shows them a picture she drew of herself in a pink bikini; although Aya isn't able to make it out in the picture. Alice voices that she probably isn't ready for a bikini yet anyway, so she goes to find an employee for help. This causes Aya to worry that the employees will laugh at her, so she quickly yells to stop her and grabs her hand leading her to something she would pick instead.

Later, the girls are heading home with their new purchases. Alice is very excited to wear her swimsuit, and to their surprise they happen to spot Karen riding by in her parents vehicle.

Meanwhile, Aya is walking by and is spotted by Yoko and her younger brother and sister.

Shino recalls all that she has left to do now is show her mom the report card, but in fright she panics and runs in the opposite direction as Alice gives chase. When they get home Isami asks Shino to see her report card, believing she did great until she realizes she was actually shown Alice's report card. She asks to see Shino's again, but when Shino tries to beg her to just forget about it she is instantly suspicious and refuses to budge.

Yoko shows up sporting tons of gear for their beach. She mentions being born in summer, and voices how important it is to spend every summer day, since they go by so quickly. Seeing her excitement, Shino compares Yoko to a cicada- which causes her grief.