Investigate the clinic

You’re just finishing lunch when you’re joined by someone new. Nurse Karlee.

“Can I sit here?” she asks the four of you. She’s points to a spare seat next to Anissa. All four of you gesture she’s welcome to it. She places her nurse’s bag down. “Can you look after this, while I get my food?”

Not a problem. She returns with a tray heaped with the last vestiges of the meals.

“I need this,” she states, when you all gawp at how much food she has. “I’ve been running around all morning with minor crises. Sometimes it feels like these girls can’t help getting in harm’s way. I’m absolutely starving.

“I haven’t seen you in the dining room before?” you ask.

“No, I tend to eat in my office, but I’ve got a meeting with Dr Stricture in 20 minutes, and I don’t want to waste time taking this food over there and then having to come back.”

“You have a lot of food,” Anissa comments.

Karlee looks at the piled plates. “I guess so. I have an active metabolism, and some days, like today, I’m on my feet all day.” She starts to shovel the food into her mouth. “Carry on talking, don’t mind me,” she says after a couple of mouthfuls when nobody else has spoken. You’re all looking at her.

Soon Abigail and Spencer are talking again, the usual nonsense. You, though, have other plans.

“I’d better go.”

“Running away?” Nurse Karlee asks. Is that sadness in her hazel eyes? “Do I scare you?”

“No, I’d love to stay. Unfortunately, I’ve got things to do before my next class.”

What you’ve realised is that Nurse Karlee is going to be in the dining room and then in Dr Stricture’s office for the foreseeable future. Which means the clinic will be empty. Which means it’s the perfect time for you to look for those contraband contraceptives.

You give your farewells. Take your tray to the hatch to be cleaned. Then head to the clinic, by a roundabout route, just in case anyone is following you.