[for Karen]

Nick was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the hut, surrounded by books and papers. It wasn't a great position for his back, but he worked best when he could spread everything out in front of him. He was working on putting together some more assignments and discussions for the next few weeks of class. He'd already had some things planned, but now that he was down a student, he'd decided to change some of the work up. Not to mention the fact that no one really felt like doing much of anything when someone you knew disappeared.

As he flipped through his messily scrawled notes, he felt something skitter up his arm. A stray bug, maybe, and he slapped ineffectively at it. "Do they make island exterminators?" he called out to Karen, knowing full well that there weren't. It happened again, the feel of little legs creeping up his neck, and he swiped at his skin, coming up empty.

Nick tossed down his pencil and scratched at the back of his neck, where he swore a bug had just been crawling. "If not, do you think I can just make someone in the lab work on making bug bombs? 'cause I feel like I'm getting eaten alive over here."