Nik sighed as he glanced from medical book to medical book to his laptop, trying to figure out what, exactly, he was supposed to be doing. His fingers flew across the keyboard, or.. would have, had Katie not decided that that particular action was rather boring.

Nikkos Stephens was usually a wiz when it came to reports, but.. this one? Well, to put it simply, he just didn't feel like doing it. 'Twas rather odd, coming from the boy who aspired to be a surgeon, but.. hey, we're all human, aren't we?

He sighed and flipped through a few more pages of the large text before him, trying to ignore the seemingly bragging blinking text cursor that his eye was so drawn to. It upset him slightly, that he couldn't think of anything to write. Must be writer's block. Well, that or he hadn't quite gotten back out of summer break mode.

Either way, his mind just wasn't on the stack of research in front of him, and his wide-spread train of thought was suddenly broken by the sound of footsteps behind him. Odd as it was, the break in thought was almost.. welcome.

Those footsteps belonged to Alexan Marks. Alex, with her dark curly hair, black glasses, and girl-next-door attitude towards life, was probably one of the smarter girls in her graduating class. However, she had a bit of a friendly competition with none other than Nikkos Stephens.

"Nikkos? Working on Kahne's essay I presume?" She said to him as she sat down beside of him, her own laptop and book at hand, "Why must we learn about the things we learned about last year?" As the laptop powered up, she took a glance at his screen and saw that it was...blank.

"Everything okay, Nik?"

Nikkos shrugged slightly at Alex's words, crossing his arms on the table and resting his chin on them in almost a.. puppy-ish fashion. "I'm fine," he suppressed a sheepish grin, though his eyes were far from believable.

He truthfully didn't know what was wrong. Perhaps it was as the other student mentioned. He'd surely written at least two essays on what he had to now, so the topic could be getting a bit boring. Or, it could be the work at the Clinic, things had started to get a bit stressful, what with the rise in heat lately.

Seemed they saw more and more passing out from the temperatures than they were supposed to, considering there was a hospital for those sort of things, right?

He shrugged slightly again and sat up to flip another few pages in the large medical journal before him, blowing a gust of air up at his dark bangs which seemed intent on attacking the view from his eyes.

"Uh huh, sure..." She said in a barely-there voice. She proceeded to open her book to a marked page and opened Word on her computer. She skimmed the page, her finger tracing the words as she attempted to find the place where she left off.

"Try page 67, Smart-guy." She said, trying to break the semi-tension in the room. She bit the inside of her lips and attempted to focus a little more.

"So how's everything going down at the Clinic?" Alex asked, strumming her hands across the keyboard.

Nik shrugged off her "believing" statement, not really bothering to elaborate at the moment. "I used that book last year," he sighed, head already burried in the book of his own, obviously referring to the 'must use different sources' rule they'd been given.

"Busy," he replied, starting to type something on the keyboard out of absolutely nowhere in Katie's point of view. "As always." Truth be told, he still hadn't found all that much to go on with the report. 'But..' He figured introductions were always simple to write off the top of his head.

She nodded in agreement to his statement about the different books. Sighing, she began to type an intro for herself, which evolved into about two paragraphs. Good enough for now,she thought.

They worked in silence for probably three more minutes--well, Alex working and Nik trying to bash his head in his book--until Alex spoke again. "Are you going to that cheesy start-of-school party?"

thanks for the power-play, dearums xP j/k

Nikkos chewed his lip silently as they worked, his report gradually growing into a page or so. Yes, he'd finally found something in that book beside him. Well.. either that or he was typing this from memory, but either way, it was nice to have found something to go on.

He shrugged slightly at Alex's question, not answering for a few second, though most likely thinking it over instead. "I don't think so.." he answered, looking up to her. "Are you?"

She shook her head, her fingers running across the keyboard. "I don't think I'm going to either..." She finished the paragraph she was on (she now had about six) and ran her hands through her hair. She had no idea what to say next! Wow, catching Alex at a 'shy' moment.. -hale dashes off into corner-

She looked back at him and smiled, practically seeing her reflection in his eyes. Oh, to get lost in those-- what was she thinking!? This guy is practically her best friend! Shaking off the thought, she attempted another question, "Wanna do something after this?"

"Want to do anything, then?" he asked in a completely oblivious romantic Nikkos type of way. He brushed at the hair that had fallen into his eyes again before returning to his paper. That was all the homework he had for that night, anyway. All the rest had been done either in class, inbetween classes, or.. well, he just wasn't assigned any. But still; either way.

He returned to chewing his lip as he closed the huge book, opening the one beside it to refresh his memory on the result on whatever it was they were writing a report about. You know, Nikkos reminds Katie of a little kid at times, he's that oblivious to the whole romantics thing?.. Kinda cute <3 CHAWWWW! o.o -dashes too?-

This was also the only homework that Alex had; hence they were in practically the same classes, and worked at about the same pace; minus the fact that Alex was just a wee bit slower. She shook her head once more, typed a paragraph or two, and thought before she answered.

"Anything?" She asked, a mischievous smile playing across her lips, "Bungee jumping? Parasailing? You name it..unless, of course, it involves...bugs." She grimaced to show her point.

Nikkos pursed his lips softly, a sarcasticly annoyed look crossing his face as he listened. He grinned though, at her last comment, nonetheless about to get her back in the same way. "Are you sure? We could always start on that maggot collection I've been wanting to create." He grinned, knowing how she hated the subject.

Now see, here was a time when it was nice to be a guy, where bugs didn't creep you out and you could tease random friends with the idea of touching them. Always so much fun. <3

Y'know, doing freshman bio labs with Nik had been a fun semester, minus the fact that twenty-five percent of the labs dealt with bugs; she hated them. Occasionally she won't flinch at a bug, but that's usually only when there's a really cute guy holding it. Exhibit A: Nikkos Stephens.

Shuddering again at the thought, she smiled. "Oh, let's just go explore that right now!" she said, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Hardy-har-harr, Maggot-pants, seriously; what do you wanna do?" Ah, their true relationship coming out.

Nikkos smiled softly, chuckling at the memories of labs their freshman year. She'd never seemed to flinch at the bugs that much then; he'd figured she'd just gotten used to them. But of course, whenever he'd asked her to hold one.. well.. that never happened.

A fake confused look crossed Nik's face as he finished up his report, saving it with a few buttons/laptop mouse clicky thingehs. "I thought we were going bug-hunting.." he muttered, giving himself away as he grinned, closing the notebook. "I don't quite know, that's why I asked you, remember?"

"Pshh, thanks, Nik!" She said as she also saved, closed, and exit'd [thank you mrs. van meter!]. She smiled as she stood up and closed all of her books, merely noticing that she had a paragraph or two for her closing paragraphs that still needed to be typed up.

Throwing her bag onto her shoulder, she closed her eyes to think. "We could hit a movie; I hear their playing some foreign-ers." She loved foreign movies; and hoped he did too.

"Foreign-ers?" Nikkos kidded, sliding his computer into it's bag, the black strap finding it's way to his shoulder.. with some help from his hand, of course. He stood up, gathering random books that he'd set around him into one stack, which he.. well.. that's all for now.

"What type of 'foreign-ers?'" he asked, using Alex's word for the foreign movies. He didn't mind going to a foreign movie every now and then; it was always nice to touch up on his French.. of which he'd passed French IV in like his Sophomore year? Something like that. Either way, it doesn't matter.. Katie will come up with it later.

closed.