Turn It Into Magic

"So Abi. How would you like to make a deal with me?" Pogo asked, looking as sly as ever. The girl in question raised her eyebrow, always skeptical of the keyboardist.

"What kind of deal?" Suspicion was thick in her voice. Pogo snickered and pulled a chair over so that he could sit in front of Abi. It was the first time he had left his place behind the table. Twiggy still remained behind it, grinning widely.

"Well, Abigail. I happen to know things. Two of the things I know happen to be two things that involve you, and I know that you would like to find out about both of them," Pogo explained. He folded his hands and rested them on his lap as he looked at the girl before him.

"And what would those things be, Pogo?"

"Now that's the problem, you see. If I tell you what they are, it would be eliminating the purpose of making a deal. Then you would just be satisfied, you would be able to leave, and I would gain absolutely nothing from it," the keyboardist reasoned.

Abi sighed. "Then what do you propose, Pogo?"

"I was hoping you would ask that," he said. "You can pick one of the two things to find out. I'm not going to tell you both. I'll give you an overview of each one, and you can decide which one you're more anxious to know."

"But...?" Abi prompted him.

"But I'm not going to do it for free. You'll have to give me something in return," the keyboardist smiled.

"What is it that you want?"

"Well, I thought we could discuss that. I want to come to an agreement beforehand, so you can't back out later," Pogo said. He held his hands out to Abi. "Got any ideas?"

"I don't think I should have to do anything more for you. I provide you with food, a home, plenty of debauchery, and even my body on certain occasions. What more could you want?" she asked, growing slightly exasperated by this whole secretive ordeal.

"While that may be true, you also provide me with a lot of boredom and force me into silence after I indulge in your aforementioned debauchery." Pogo stared at Abi, waiting for her comeback to his statement.

"I can't just let you run the hospital. You have to understand, there's got to be some sort of structure here. If I let you run wild whenever you want, this hospital would be a mess. For Christ's sake, Pogo, you've started a goddamned war before! You disappeared for weeks and built a life-sized chessboard and hired provocatively dressed women to be your chess pieces!" Abi exclaimed. "For fuck's sake, I gave you the easiest punishment in both cases!"

"I'm not asking you to let me run wild. I haven't asked you anything yet. I just wanted to see if you had any ideas about the matter of my compensation. Which you don't seem to," the keyboardist pointed out.

Abi sighed once again. "Okay. How about you give me your overview of the things you know, and I'll go discuss this with Elizabeth and Iggy."

"Alright. Fair enough." Pogo nodded and continued. "The first thing I know is rather simple. It involves what's in the closet. Not only will I tell you that one, but I'll show you as well. The next is a more complicated matter. I happen to know that someone here in the hospital has taken a certain... interest in you."

"An interest?" Abi interrupted. She hadn't been expecting that.

"Yes. This person happens to be quite fond of you and has asked a different person in this hospital to aid them in possessing you. I would be glad to reveal this to you, if you so choose," Pogo explained.

The girl before him rubbed her eyes and thought for a moment. "You really don't make this easy, do you?"

"Absolutely not."

"Well, Pogo. I assume you've already got something in mind for me to do. What is it?" she asked.

Pogo glanced back at Twiggy, who nodded. "Well, there are a few things. First, I would like total control of you for one night-

"For fuck's sake-"

"Hush, I'm not done! That could just mean I want to have an intelligent conversation with you. Second, you have to let Twiggy and I do whatever we want for 24 hours. We choose when we take that day, and you can do whatever you want if we stray a second over our time. And the last one. You can't tell anyone that we know someone here has a thing for you." Pogo leaned back comfortably once he had finished laying out his terms. Abi did the same, although her action was in quiet deliberation.

"Can I have half an hour to discuss this with Elizabeth and Iggy?" she asked.

The keyboardist nodded. "Of course. We'll meet here when you finish."

Abi scurried out the door as soon as he had spoken, and Pogo returned behind the table with Twiggy, although there was no real reason to. The bassist and the keyboardist shared a look and a sigh of understanding.

"Are you sure we made the right choice?" Twiggy asked.

"Of course. What better choice is there to make than putting the decision making on someone else's shoulders?" Pogo laughed. He layed back against the door of the closet and sighed in contentment. "Now all we have to do is wait another 30 minutes."

Elsewhere in the hospital, Abi rushed into her office in hopes of discovering that the other two girls would magically be waiting for her there. Since luck wasn't on her side, they weren't there, and Abi sighed in frustration as she grabbed the microphone for the intercom.

"Elizabeth and Iggy, would you kindly get your asses in the office? Thank you."

After five minutes of waiting and impatient foot-tapping, the door opened, and Elizabeth and Iggy walked in. Upon seeing Abi, they exchanged a confused look.

"Where have you been?" the girl before them answered.

"We were, uh, in the ballroom," Iggy said, not sure who she wanted to share her confused looks with.

"What were you doing in the ballroom?" she asked. Elizabeth opened her mouth to answer, but Abi interrupted her. "Never mind. I don't want to know. I really need your help, though."

"What do you need?" Elizabeth asked. She waved the other two girls over to the arrangement of armchairs in the corner of the room. All three took a seat.

"Pogo has given me a decision to make, and I need your assistance to see what needs to be done about it."

"What kind of decision are we talking about here?"

Abi sighed and prepared herself for the inevitably long explanation. "He knows two things, and he's going to tell me one of them, as long as I provide him with certain means of... uh, compensation."

"Compensation...?" Elizabeth trailed off. Her question need not be answered, as Abi's expression told her exactly what she needed to know. "So, what are your choices?"

"First, he knows what's in the closet and will show me if that's what I decide I want to know. But he also knows that someone in the hospital wants me. Romantically. And he'll tell me that, if I want to know. They're both incredibly appealing, and I need to know which one I should choose," she finished. "And I've only got a half an hour before I need to go back with my decision."

"That's a tough one," Elizabeth nodded as she debated the situation.

"Well, not really. You just have to think about it. If he plans to show us what's in the closet today, then we can find out and satisfy everyone's curiosity. But he said he would show us that anyway, when it was ready. Plus, the chances of Pogo knowing someone is... interested in you are slim. He could just be messing around with you. But if he's right, it should be something that we could figure out ourselves," Iggy said. The other two stared at her, wondering how she could have come to those conclusions that quickly.

"So you're saying it would be better to see what's in the closet, then?" Abi asked.

"Basically, yeah."

"That would make more sense, I suppose. Then everyone can find out and satisfy their need to know so we don't have to hear them bitch while Pogo culminates whatever is in there," she nodded. "Elizabeth, what do you think?"

"I agree. Sounds like a decent enough plan to me. And we'll be able to do some detective work to find out your secret admirer, too," she laughed.

Abi stood and straightened herself out. "Well alright then. Would you like to accompany me to Pogo's room?"

"You don't even have to ask."

__________

Pogo and Twiggy both jumped at the sound of the door opening. When the two seen who it was that was entering, the keyboardist's face broke out into a grin.

"Have you come to a conclusion?" he asked, still grinning happily.

"We want to see what's in the closet," Abi answered matter-of-factly.

"Ah, that's quite a fine choice. I had a feeling that's what you would choose." He then turned to the man next to him. "Twiggs, go get everyone and tell them to come here so we don't have to expose our bounty countless times."

"I'm on it," Twiggy said as he jumped up. "Excuse me, ladies." And with that, he had disappeared out of the room and was headed who-knows-where to get the rest of the men.

His first stop was the kitchen, where he found Marilyn and Zim nursing their respective glasses of whiskey and having a chat about not much in particular. Marilyn was the first to see the bassist and looked at him with confusion.

"I thought you were guarding the closet with Pogo." It was more of a question than a statement.

"We're gonna show you guys what's in the closet. You need to hurry up if you want to see it," he said breathlessly. Zim downed the last of his drink and stood up, Marilyn following closely behind him.

"What caused this sudden change of heart?" the guitarist asked as he followed Twiggy through the halls.

"We made a deal with Abi, but it's confidential, so I can't tell you what happened. All you need to know is that you're going to get to see what's in the closet," he responded vaguely. Then he abruptly stopped and turned to the other men. "Do you guys want to help me get everyone else?"

"I don't see why not."

The news of the revealing spread through the hospital like wildfire. Each of the men branched off and informed someone else. Twiggy found not only Marilyn and Zim, but Tim wandering the halls in search of Trent. Zim found the man Tim was searching for. Marilyn was left with the job of knocking on the door of John and Ginger. It took several awkward moments for them to get themselves together before they were even able to answer the door and several more when they realized they needed to leave the comfort of their bed.

A mere ten minutes later, all the men had finally gathered in Pogo's room for the second time that day. The table was set off to the side in its proper position and everything had been cleared out of the way. The keyboardist was standing proudly next to the closet door, smiling.

"I've decided that what lies beyond these doors needs to be shared with all of you, because it's far too fantastic to be kept secret," he announced. "Twiggy, will you come join me?"

Of course the bassist scurried to the other side of the closet, his grin making him appear to be Pogo's very own Vanna White.

"Is this going to take a long time? Because I have some... things to attend to," John said awkwardly. Ginger closed his eyes and sighed as the attention of everyone in the room was suddenly inflicted on their messy hair and flushed faces.

"Nice job, John," the drummer hissed. John just smiled sheepishly and rested his head on the other man's shoulder.

Pogo cleared his throat and, much to John's relief, once again became the center of attention. "This shouldn't take all that long. Twiggy, do you want to do the honors?"

The bassist grabbed the knob on the door and slowly opened it for all to see. Inside, there was a large tank that was filled with water and a small little island of rocks. There were three small green newts swimming through the water. Next to the newts was a planting pot with two cacti in it, a heated lamp shining down on them.

"Newts!" Elizabeth cooed as she walked over to the little aquarium. She stared in at the creatures as a few others neared the closet to see the things up close.

"Really, Pogo? Newts and cacti?" Abi asked as she shook her head. "That's what you get when you go to the mall?"

"And Lite Brites."

Abi chose to ignore the man next to her, now dreading the imminent days of torture that she would have to partake in.

"Do they have names? The newts, I mean," John asked.

"The one with the spots is Poseidon, the really big one is Zeus, and the one with the lines on its back is Neptune," Twiggy answered. He pointed to each newt as he said their names.

After a while, the novelty around the closet's contents had worn off, and everyone slowly began to leave the room. Elizabeth made the other two girls stay the longest so she could fawn over the amphibious creatures.

"Are you about ready to go? I really want some coffee," Abi asked her friend.

"Yeah, I guess," Elizabeth shrugged as she stood up. "I can come see them whenever I want, right?"

"Of course!" Twiggy chirped happily, following the girls out of the room. They each headed to their respective rooms, the bassist giving each girl a hug goodbye as he met with Marilyn in their bedroom.

"What do you say about making hot chocolate?" Iggy asked as they stood awkwardly, trying to figure out what they wanted to do next.

"And we can start trying to figure out my secret admirer while we're at it," Abi agreed as she held the door to the office open for the other two girls.

Elizabeth grinned as she entered the room. "Am I the only one who thinks this is gonna be fun?"