I Get a Surprising Birthday Visit

**I Get a Surprising Birthday Visit** is the forty-nighth chapter of The Gift of a Best Friend. It was first published on September 4, 2017.

## Chapter

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**Annabeth's POV**
So Jasmine’s got her powers now. That makes her even more dangerous than she’s already been.
She’s had them for a few months now, and basically knows how to use and control most of them. She’s learning them from Mom, Grandma, and Nick, and spends most of her time with them, which means that I get to be by myself without her constantly watching over me.
But it’s only temporary until she’s learned them all, which is a lot, so I need to take advantage of it before she’s done learning as much of her powers as she can.
Though, I’ll admit, I enjoyed it at first, but now I actually miss Jasmine bothering me all the time. But when we’re hanging out while she’s taking a break, she turns herself into all kinds of animals and cryptids, her favorite power, and makes me play or pet her as one. That I don’t miss doing at all.
But even if she didn’t have to learn her powers, today only, she’d still let me be alone.
Why?
Why? Because today is my birthday. My twelfth one, to be exact. My birthday is the only day of the year that Jasmine lets me do whatever I want, even if it means that I want to be alone.
She’ll let me without argue, though I can tell she doesn’t like it. She probably even hates my birthday.
Well, no she doesn’t, because it’s also the anniversary of the day we became friends. Our seventh one, to be exact.
I should probably spend it with her, but it’s not my fault that it happened on my birthday and she’s letting me call the shots whether she likes it or not. And she gets to do the same when it’s her birthday, which is just four days from now.
But when she wants us to do something that I don’t want to do, she won’t say “It’s my birthday, and I let you do whatever you want on your birthday, so you should let me do whatever I want on mine,” but I can tell that she wants to. But I feel guilty about it if I don’t do it for her on her birthday.
Anyway, so far today, Jasmine’s just going to come up with ideas for our birthday party, which we celebrate every year on the 10th because it’s right between our birthdays, two days after mine and two days before hers, and we’ll go over the ideas tomorrow to see if I like them or not.
Right now, I’m standing on the deck in my backyard, deciding what to do on my birthday.
Then I heard an owl hooting.
I looked ahead into the woods and saw it sitting on a branch in the closest tree, looking at me. I’ll admit, every time I see or hear an owl I become quite anxious of it.
The owl is my mother’s, my real mother, Athena’s, sacred animal, because it’s the wisest animal, and she is very wise herself. Thinking of an owl automatically makes me think of her. But not so much at the moment.
I was thinking that owls are nocturnal, and wondering why this owl was here, awake, in the middle of the day, staring at me.
It hooted one more time and flew into the woods. But not out of sight. It landed on another tree branch twenty feet away, looked back at me and hooted again. I could tell that it wanted me to follow it, and I didn’t need Jasmine to translate for me.
It didn’t matter. I was going to anyway until I couldn’t see or hear it anymore, like I have many times before.
I got down from the deck and followed the owl into the woods.

It led me to our on-ground tree house and landed on the roof. It didn’t really gesture me toward anything, but I went inside.
I walked around and looked everywhere, but didn’t see anything unusual. I came back outside and looked up at the roof, but the owl was gone.
I sighed. Oh, well.
“Don’t be disappointed, Annabeth,” a voice said.
I turned around and found myself face to face with a woman.
She was wearing an elegant white dress, and her eyes were startling gray, like mine. I felt like I was looking at myself from the future.
I knew exactly who this woman was, but I was afraid that it was too good to be true. But I had to ask. “Mom?”
The woman smiled at me. “Hello, Annabeth. Look at how well you’ve grown.”
I couldn’t believe this.
I couldn’t believe this. My mother, Athena, the goddess of wisdom and battle, was standing right here in front of me on my birthday. Could this day get any better?
“What—what are you doing?” I asked.
“Can’t even a goddess come and visit her own daughter on her birthday?” she replied.
“I guess. But—uh . . .”
“I never have before.”
“Uh, no.”
Mom smiled again. “That’s not entirely true. I have come to see you before, along with all my other children, especially on there birthdays, but you nor they have seen me.”
“Ok,” I said. “But why—”
“Do I allow you to see me now?” Mom finished.
I nodded.
“Because I have a gift for you for your birthday.”
“A gift?” I asked.
“Yes. Hold out your hands.”
I did as she told me, nervously, and held out my hands. She then held out hers and closed her eyes. A bright glow came from her hands, a blinding one.
I turned away from them until I could no longer see a bright light. When I turned back, I could see my gift in my Mom’s hands.
She held it out to me. “For you, my daughter. Happy birthday.”
I took the gift and stared down at it.
I thought it was going to be—well . . . I’m not sure what I thought. But definitely not *this*.
I looked at my mom with an eyebrow raised. “Umm . . . a baseball hat?”
She smiled with a little humor. “Do you like it?”
“Uh, I’m not sure. I don’t really like baseball, much less, the Yankees.”
“Try it on.”
“Uh, ok.”
I put the hat on to my head. “Well?”
Mom smiled at me again, still looking a little humorous. “Look at your hands.”
That was an odd reply, but I did it anyway.
I looked at my hands, but they weren’t there. No part of my body was there. At least, I couldn’t see any part of it, but I could still feel it. I took my hat off and my body reappeared.
I looked at my mom.
She smiled at me. “A baseball hat is a good disguise for an invisibility one, don’t you agree?”
I nodded.
“Now do you like it?”
I nodded again and smiled. “Yes. Very much. Thank you, Mom.”
“You’re very welcome. That will be very useful for you in battles.”
“I know it will be.”
Mom walked around the on ground tree house, looking at it from every inch.
“Your sister did a great job designing this,” she said.
“I know,” I agreed.
Mom stopped in front of me and looked me over, then smiled. “You have grown to be a strong, brave young lady. I’m so proud of you.”
I smiled. “Thanks, Mom.”
“And you have great people looking out for you. Especially that friend of yours.”
“Best friend,” I corrected. “And her name is Jasmine.”
I don’t usually say that, but Jasmine does it a lot that I picked up on it.
“Yes,” Mom said. “Jasmine. You have a true friend out of her.”
“I know I do,” I replied.
“And I don’t want you to be mad at your father.”
I didn’t expect her to mention him, but her doing so opened up some old wounds.
I didn’t want to disrespect her, but I crossed my arms. “And why not?”
“Because he’s your father, Annabeth,” Mom replied.
“Yeah. And I’m his daughter, but he doesn’t seem to care.”
“He does care about you. And you care about him.”
“No, I don’t.”
“If you don’t, then why do you carry his college ring around your neck?”
I hesitated.
I fidgeted with the ring on my camp necklace with my clay beads. “I don’t know.”
“Your father would not have given that to you if he did not care for you,” Mom said.
“Unless he didn’t care about it, too,” I muttered.
“Annabeth, your father does care about you. He simply does not know how to show it to you. Not yet. But he will someday soon. Do not doubt that.”
“I’ll try not to.”
“Very well. I will leave you now.”
I bowed to her. “Thank you again, Mom, for the gift.”
“Of course. Use it wisely. We will meet again soon. Happy birthday, my daughter.”

After my mom left, I went to go find Jasmine. But I did it with my new hat on, turning myself invisible.
Jasmine was in our room, on her side, sitting at her desk and using her laptop. Toothless was lying on her bed.
I wanted to sneak up on Jasmine and surprise her, but when I got within a few feet of her, she suddenly stopped what she was doing and turned around, looking cautious.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Annabeth?”
I had no idea how she knew I was there. Even Toothless was looking directly at me.
I wanted to surprise Jasmine, but when I took off my hat and became visible again, right in front of her, she was startled.
“Oh my God.” She sighed in relief. “You scared the hell out of me.”
I stifled a laugh. “That’s what I was trying to do. But how did you know I was there?”
“I can sense you with my powers, remember?”
“Oh. Right.”
Jasmine’s powers can feel anyone’s presence if they have powers too. Or, at least, not entirely mortal. Like me. Her powers can also compare someone’s powers with somebody else’s to determine which is stronger. Jasmine told me that the power surging from me is stronger than any other demigods at camp, even Luke’s.
I’ve been told that before from our family, but I still didn’t understand how or why that was, and I may never know. But the power surging from Jasmine is, of course, stronger than mine, but I didn’t care.
“So do I really have to ask where you got that hat that turns you invisible when you put it on your head?” Jasmine asked. “Or are you going to spare me from that and tell me?”
“You’re already asking me,” I replied.
“All right. Now tell me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. My mom just gave it to me for my birthday.”
“She did? Why did Mom make it look like a baseball hat. You don’t really like baseball.”
“I know. But your mom didn’t give it to me. My mom did. My real mom, Athena.”
Jasmine stared at me. “Your real mom came to visit you?”
I nodded. “I was in the backyard, on the deck, and—”
“Wait,” Jasmine interrupted. Then she stood a couple of inches in front of me. “Show me.”
“Show you?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. You know. I put my hand on your forehead, you close your eyes and picture that moment again, and my powers, I guess, will copy that moment from your mind and transmit it to mine, then I can see exactly what happened the way you saw it and you will again too. Ok?”
“Uh, ok.”
“Great. Now close your eyes and picture that moment with your mom again.”
“Ok.”
I closed my eyes.
Jasmine placed her hand on my forehead, and I thought of that moment with my mom in the woods again. After a few moments, I was watching it in my mind.
I thought I would see it from my point-of-view, like you were watching it through a camera, but it’s more like I’m watching myself on TV, and it looks so real. Well, it was, but you know what I mean.
After I saw my mom leave again, the memory ended and I opened my eyes. I stared at Jasmine. “Wow.”
She smiled. “I know. It took a while for me to finally be able to do that, but it was cool. I can also do that to myself and show you memories of your past that you don’t remember yourself.”
“How?”
“I have no idea. But my powers know everything about everything and everyone. Sometimes even more than someone knows about themselves. But that doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that your siblings at camp are going to be jealous that you met your mom.”
I laughed. “I would be, too, if it was one of them instead of me.”
“Yeah. But that’s so cool that you met your mom, and she gave you a birthday present. Can I try it?”
“Sure.”
I handed her my hat.
She took it and put it on. She was completely invisible.
She took off the hat. “Here, Toothless.”
He came to her and put it on his head. He also turned invisible.
She took the hat off of him and gave it back to me. “That is so cool.”
“I know,” I agreed.
“I can turn myself invisible too without the hat.”
“I’m sure you can, Jasmine.”
“Hey, how about you go surprise everyone with your new present?”
“My mom told me to use it wisely. Not to do something silly.”
“It’s your birthday, Annabeth. You get to be silly. And you just tried to surprise me with it.”
I shrugged. “Fair point.”
“Great,” Jasmine said. “Now only try on our family members that don’t have powers, because the ones that do will sense you like I did.”
“I know.” I put on my hat and became invisible. “Do you want to come with me?”
Jasmine beamed. “Can I?”
“Yeah. Come on.”
She activated her powers and turned herself invisible.
I couldn’t sense her like she could sense me, so I took the lead and she followed. Of course, she always does that even when we’re visible.
We scared a few people and laughed a lot. Komodo eventually joined us since he could also turn invisible.
I think the funniest one we scared in our family was Fiskerton. Then, after them, we went to the park across the street and surprised every person that passed by. We accidentally made a few little kids cry. After that, we decided not to surprise anymore little kids, but it took a while for Komodo to get that.
Either way, it was still a good birthday.
But little did I know that it would be the last good birthday I would have for a while.

Wow. It has been way too long since I've updated this story. Sorry about that, guys. My life has gotten somewhat better and busy since my last update that I've been too distracted with it to keep up on updates. But I am still planning on doing so, I'm just not sure when exactly. Hopefully once a month at least.
Now I believe it was mentioned that Annabeth got her hat from her mother on her birthday? It's been awhile since I've read it, and this is the best I could come up with, so I hope this was at least enjoyable.
Answer to the last chapter's quiz: **The Gift of a Friend** and **Two Worlds Collide, by Demi Lovato**. And yes, I got the title for this story from that one song.
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## Character Appearances

### Main Characters

* Annabeth Chase
* Jasmine Saturday