It was the last few days of summer break; Nan and Bess were enjoying the sun on their faces. It had been a very interesting summer for the two girls. They hadn't only participated in traditional summer activities like baseball, camping and, in Nan's case, looking for bugs: it had also been a summer of growing. Nan hated the fact that she was growing up and turning into a young woman. To make things worse, Dad reminded her of that nearly every day. She could no longer swim or camp with the boys, and even Bess started to annoy her as well. The dainty golden-haired, blue-eyed girl cared so much about her looks that it would take her about two hours just to get ready. And now she was even more careful about not getting herself "dirty" at all times. Nan didn't understand why Bess had to take after her Uncle Byakuya and not her parents, Renji and Rukia.
Growing up hadn't been the only big event. For example, Aizen, Gin, and Tousen betrayed the Soul Society and left. It was a relief to Nan that Gin didn't take his nephew Ameil with him—after all, it was hard enough going almost a whole summer without Ururu, Jinta, Yuzu and Karin. She was a little annoyed that Demi and Daisy were left, though. They were six years old and without their parents Aizen and Momo around, they hung around the older children a lot. That was mainly because they were staying with their cousin Nat and his family.
Dan also had his first summer with the children. He'd been a new student last fall at the boarding school they all attended. At first, he was just being sponsored by Kenpachi and Yachiru, but by the end of the year they had adopted him. Their teacher Ikkaku used to think having an outsider would be hard but Dan ended up getting treated like family. Plus, Nan found out Bess liked him in that way and she and Nat got to tease her whenever the opportunity presented itself.
The one thing Nan could always look forward to at the end of every summer was a camping trip with Nat and his family. Dad would always say the only reason he approved was because Nat's parents Rangiku and Toshiro were going. Also, Dad would take a break from working at his lab and go with them.
Nan frowned at the thought of things changing at school. At the end of the summer, Ikkaku had an extra room built for Nan and Bess to stay in. Still to this day, Nan could not understand the reasoning behind this unattractive decision though Mayuri had tried explaining more than ten times. Instead, she would fiercely accuse him of trying to make her grow up faster. She didn't care that the other three girls were eleven years old and she and Bess were thirteen-there wasn't any big difference anyways. On the other hand, Bess begged to differ.