We Take a Zebra to Vegas

We Take a Zebra to Vegas is the sixty-fourth chapter of The Gift of a Best Friend. It was first published on July 6th, 2018.
==Chapter==
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Chapter
 Annabeth's POV
The war god was waiting for us in the diner parking lot.
“Well, well,” he said. “You didn’t get yourself killed.”
“You knew it was a trap,” Percy said.
Ares gave him a wicked grin. “Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV.”
Percy shoved his shield at him. “You’re a jerk.”
Grover and I caught our breath, but Jasmine was smiling out of enjoyment.
Ares grabbed his shield and spun it in the air. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.
“See that truck over there?” He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. “That’s your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas.”
The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which I could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.
Jasmine liked that.
“You’re kidding,” Percy said.
Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. “Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here’s a little something for doing the job.”
He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to Percy.
Inside were fresh clothes for all of us, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuf Oreos.
“I don’t want your lousy—” Percy started, but Grover interrupted.
“Thank you, Lord Ares,” he said, giving Percy his best red-alert warning look. “Thanks a lot.”
Percy gritted his teeth. Reluctantly, he slung the backpack over his shoulder.
He was angry. He looked at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who’d served us dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares might hurt us. She dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of us.
Great. We’ll make the papers again tomorrow.
“You owe me one more thing,” Percy told Ares, trying to keep his voice level. “You promised me information about my mother.”
“You sure you can handle the news?” He kick-started his motorcycle. “She’s not dead.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That’s metamorphosis. Not death. She’s being kept.”
“Kept. Why?”
“You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else.”
“Nobody’s controlling me.”
Ares laughed. “Oh yeah? See you around, kid.”
Percy balled his fists. “You’re pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues.”
Behind Ares’s sunglasses, fire glowed. “We’ll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you’re in a fight, watch your back.”
He revved his Harley, then roared off down Delancy Street.
“That was not smart, Percy,” I said.
“I think it was,” Jasmine said, still smiling.
“I don’t care,” Percy said.
“You don’t want a god as your enemy,” I said. “Especially not that god.”
“Hey, guys,” Grover said. “I hate to interrupt, but . . .”
He pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.
“If we’re taking the zoo express,” Grover said, “we need to hurry.”
I didn’t like it, but we had no better option.
We ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the doors behind us.
The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was like the world’s biggest pan of kitty litter.
The trailer was dark inside until Percy uncapped his sword. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene. 
Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three zoo animals: a zebra, a male albino lion, and an antelope.
Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn’t want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra’s mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL!
Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on solid blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur.
I could only imagine what Jasmine and Grover thought about this. Actually, I didn’t have to.
“This is kindness?” Grover yelled. “Humane zoo transport?”
“I know!” Jasmine yelled in agreement. “Kindness International my ass.”
They probably would’ve gone right back outside to beat up the truckers, and I might’ve helped him, but just then the truck’s engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and we were forced to sit down or fall down.
We huddled in the corner on some mildewed feed sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies. 
Actually, Jasmine took care of most of those with her powers. She also turned Toothless back to a baby dragon.
Grover talked to the animals in a series of goat bleats, but they just stared at him sadly. Jasmine and I broke the cages and freed them on the spot.
Jasmine took care of the cages and got rid of them by teleporting them to a junkyard, then she held on to the lion to keep him from eating any of us, because he was hungry.
Percy found a water jug and refilled their bowls, then he gave the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope.
Grover calmed the antelope down, while I used my knife to cut the balloon off his horn. 
Jasmine laid the zebra on the floor, laid next to it, summoned some scissors, and cut the gum out of its mane. She gave me some, too, to help her.
After that we all settled in for the night.
Jasmine and Toothless laid against the lion, who didn’t seem to mind, and even licked them a few times. Grover curled up on a turnip sack, and I opened our bag of Double Stuf Oreos and nibbled on one half-heartedly.
I thought about the Thrill Ride of Love, how it wasn’t such a thrill for many reasons, and about the spiders.
“Hey,” I said, “I’m sorry for freaking out back at the water park, Percy.”
“Yeah,” Jasmine agreed. “Me, too.”
“You weren’t freaking out.”
“I did at first. But even though I didn’t show it after that, inside I was, but I was mostly focused on keeping them away from you.”
I smiled. “I know.”
“That’s okay,” Percy told us.
“It’s just . . .” I shuddered. “Spiders.”
“Because of the Arachne story,” he guessed. “She got turned into a spider for challenging your mom to a weaving contest, right?”
I nodded. “Arachne’s children have been taking revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there’s a spider within a mile of me, it’ll find me. I hate the creepy little things.”
“So do I,” Jasmine agreed. “Every experience I’ve had with them when I’m with you has scared me with the fear of them for life.”
“Anyway, I owe you.”
“We’re a team, remember?” Percy said. “Besides, Grover did the fancy flying.”
I thought he was asleep, but he mumbled from the corner, “I was pretty amazing, wasn’t I?”
Percy, Jasmine, and I laughed.
“Hey,” Jasmine said. “Toothless was amazing, too.”
He nodded in agreement. 
Jasmine grabbed an Oreo, broke it in half, and gave it to him. She took the other half.
I did the same and gave half to Percy. “In the Iris message . . . did Luke really say nothing?”
Percy munched his cookie. “Luke said you, Jasmine, and he go way back. He also said Grover wouldn’t fail this time. Nobody would turn into a pine tree.”
Jasmine, Grover, Toothless, and I had hard expressions about the memory, as we usually do whenever this topic comes up.
Grover let out a mournful bray.
“I should’ve told you the truth from the beginning.” His voice trembled. “I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn’t want me along.”
“You were the satyr who tried to rescue Thalia, the daughter of Zeus,” Percy said.
Grover nodded glumly.
“And the other two half-bloods Thalia befriended, the ones who got safely to camp . . .” Percy looked at me. “That was you and Luke, wasn’t it?”
I put down my Oreo, uneaten. “Like you said, Percy, a seven-year-old half-blood wouldn’t have made it very far alone. Athena guided me toward help after Jasmine found me. Thalia was twelve. Luke was fourteen. They’d both run away from home, like me. They were happy to take us with them. They were . . . amazing monster-fighters, even without training. We traveled north from Virginia without any real plans, fending off monsters for about two weeks before Grover found us.”
“I was supposed to escort Thalia to camp,” Grover said, sniffling. “Only Thalia. I had strict orders from Chiron: don’t do anything that would slow down the rescue. We knew Hades was after her, see, but I couldn’t just leave Luke and Annabeth and Jasmine by themselves. I thought . . . I thought I could lead all four of them to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught up with us. I froze. I got scared on the way back to camp and took some wrong turns. If I’d just been a little quicker . . .”
“Stop it,” I said. “No one blames you. Thalia didn’t blame you either.”
“She’s right, Grover,” Jasmine agreed. 
Toothless also said something in agreement.
“She sacrificed herself to save us,” Grover said miserably. “Her death was my fault. The Council of Cloven Elders said so.”
“Because you wouldn’t leave two other half-bloods behind?” Percy said. “That’s not fair.”
“Damn right,” Jasmine said. “It’s fucking bullshit.”
“They’re right,” I said. “I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for you, Grover. Neither would Jasmine or Luke. We don’t care what the council says.”
Grover kept sniffling in the dark. “It’s just my luck. I’m the lamest satyr ever, and I find the two most powerful half-bloods of the century, Thalia and Percy.”
“You’re not lame,” I insisted. “You’ve got more courage than any satyr I’ve ever met. Name one other who would dare go to the Underworld. I bet Percy is really glad you’re here right now.”
I kicked him in the shin.
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s not luck that you found Thalia and me, Grover. You’ve got the biggest heart of any satyr ever. You’re a natural searcher. That’s why you’ll be the one who finds Pan.”
“He’s right,” Jasmine said. “And you’re my favorite and the only satyr I like.”
I heard a deep, satisfied sigh. I waited for Grover to say something, but his breathing only got heavier. When the sound turned to snoring, I realized he’d fallen asleep.
“How does he do that?” Percy marveled.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But that was really a nice thing you told him.”
“I meant it.”
“I know you did,” Jasmine said, smiling in what looked like admiration toward him.
We rode in silence for a few miles, bumping around near the animals. The zebra munched a turnip. The lion licked the last of the hamburger meat off his lips. Jasmine rubbed his head gently.
I was thinking about the quest.
“The pine-tree bead,” Percy said to me. “Is that from your first year.”
I looked. I hadn’t realized that I was rubbing my necklace.
“Yeah,” I said. “Every August, the counselors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year’s beads. I’ve got Thalia’s pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress—now that was a weird summer. . . .”
Jasmine laughed at the memory of it. “And a funny one.”
“And the college ring is your father’s?” Percy asked.
“That’s none of your—” I stopped myself. “Yeah. Yeah it is.”
“You don’t have to tell me.”
“No . . . it’s okay.” I took a shaky breath. “My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn’t have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard without her. . . . That’s a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“Wait for it, Percy,” Jasmine said.
“She’s right,” I said. “The problem was, I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn’t want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn’t even make it through winter break. I ran all the way back to Jasmine’s house, which was just across the river.”
“You think you’ll ever try living with your dad again?” Percy asked.
I wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Please. I’m not into self-inflicted pain.”
“No one should be,” Jasmine said.
“You shouldn’t give up,” Percy told me. “You should write him a letter or something.”
“I agree.”
“Thanks for the advice,” I said coldly, “but my dad’s made his choice about who he wants to live with.”
We passed another few miles of silence.
“So if the gods fight,” Percy said, “will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?”
I put my head against the backpack Ares had given us, then Jasmine summoned me a pillow, and I closed my eyes. “I don’t know what my mom will do. I just know I’ll fight next to you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?”
He didn’t ask anymore.
Jasmine smiled at me proudly, like she was finally glad that I accepted Percy as my friend.
I guess I am, too.
After our talk with Grover, about my dad, all Percy said, I was starting to feel something more toward him, but I wasn’t sure what exactly yet. Maybe this is why I’ve had all those visions about him.
----
I woke up later when I no longer felt like we were moving.
Jasmine, Grover, and Toothless did too. Percy didn’t, so Grover had to shake him awake.
“The truck’s stopped,” Grover told him. “We think they’re coming to check on the animals.”
“Hide!” I hissed.
“We don’t have to,” Jasmine said. Then turned toward the animals. “You are all free now. Go. They or anybody else won’t hurt or cage you anymore. I promise you that.”
The lion, zebra, and antelope nodded, then gave us all thank you licks.
“Good luck,” Percy told them.
Grover held up his hands and said something to them in goat talk, like a blessing.
The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in.
As soon as they were open all the way, showing one of the men still wearing his coverall, the zebra leaped over him and into the street. The lion and the antelope followed the zebra and they went off together into the streets.
There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. We rushed to the doors of the trailer just in time to see the animals running down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs. We’d just released a zebra, a lion, and an antelope in Las Vegas.
The two men ran after the animals, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, “Hey! You need a permit for that!”
“Which they probably don’t have,” Jasmine said.
“The lion said that these guys are animal smugglers,” Grover said in disgust.
“Which is illegal,” I said. 
“It better be,” Jasmine said. “I can’t believe my grandmother hadn’t stopped them a long time ago.”
“Maybe we were meant to do that ourselves now.”
“Well, that makes me like it a little better, since that is what my family’s been doing long before I was born.”
Some tourists screamed. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind of stunt by one of the casinos.
“Will the animals be okay?” Percy asked Grover. “I mean, the desert and all—”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I placed a satyr’s sanctuary on them.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning they’ll reach the wild safely. They’ll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live.”
“Why can’t you place a blessing like that on us?”
“It only works on animals.”
“So it would only effect Percy,” I reasoned.
Jasmine laughed. “Yeah, and he needs it more than any of us do.”
“Hey!” he protested.
“Kidding,” I said. “Come on. Let’s get out of this filthy truck.”
“Agreed,” Jasmine said. “And let’s not ever come back to it.”
----
So I splitted this chapter in two, as I changed a lot for this one. You can probably guess what happens in the next chapter.
And Jason's birthday was this past Sunday. Happy birthday, Jason Grace!
Please review here.
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==Character Appearances==
===Main Characters===
*Annabeth Chase
*Jasmine Saturday
*Percy Jackson
===Minor Characters===
*Grover Underwood
*Ares
===Pets===
*Toothless
===Enemies===
==Trivia==
Category:Chapters
Category:The Gift of a Best Friend chapters
Category:Chapters based on a chapter in the book series
Category:Chapters in Annabeth's POV