Everybody was silent until Melman spoke up.

"What's eating him?" Melman pondered after have to watch the gloomy zebra walk away as if the conversation didn't happen.

"Maybe you should talk to him, Alex. You know, go over and give him a little pep talk." Gloria suggested.

"Hey, I already gave him a snow globe." The lion objected. "I can't top that."

"Well someone decided to give him the gift of a lifetime," Ayana said sarcastically. "Pretty sure you should've gotten him the alarm clock."

"Yeah, I said the same thing. Knew I should've gone for the alarm clock." Alex indicates, missing the Leopard's eye roll.

"Alex..." Gloria hissed.

"I can see where this is going." Melman yawns, raising his neck and sliding off his birthday bat. "It is getting late. I guess I'm gonna..." His sentence ended with him falling asleep and snoring on the spot.

After the giraffe had passed out, Gloria and Alex began to bicker back and forth in a silent argument. Flailing their hands wildly, indicating their side of the argument with body language. It quickly ended when Gloria pounded her fist into her palm repeatedly in a threatening manner. Alex backed away immediately, almost fearfully.

"Come on. He's your best friend." Gloria whispered, before glancing over to Ayana who shrugged, standing up from her spot.

Alex sighed in defeat. "All right, all right. OK."

"Night, Ayana," Gloria told her, moving to leave.

"Night, Glo." She called back, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Night, Marty!"

"...Night, Glo."

Gloria stood before her pool, turned back to the two large cats and pointed at the duo, then back to Marty. It was like she was trying to explain how to approach the downcast friend and come up with a solution. Finally, she landed into her pool, with a backflip, causing a humongous splash.

Ayana sat near Alex as he presented his custom made umbrella, sheltering them both from the downpour. After the rain of chlorine water ceased, Gloria's hand sprouted from the rippling pool to point back and forth between the cats and the zebra until it sunk under the waves.

After hiding the umbrella, Alex began to ponder and turned to Ayana for advice.

She blinked. "I have nothing. Seriously, nothing."

"Great." Alex groaned. "The most selfless animal I know can't think of a way to help someone."

"Well, how would you go out by helping out our bemused best friend?"

Alex took her words and the advice he gave Marty, and laid down on his back on the flat surface of his brick wall, with paws folded under his head and legs crossed so he could get relaxed.

Alex sighed in content. "What a day. I mean, just really, really I mean I tell you, it just doesn't get any better than this, you know? Ooh! It just did." He exclaimed.

"Even the star's out." In the dark and endless void of the sky was a single dot of light. "Not going to find a star like that in the wild."

Marty continued walking on his treadmill and barely even glanced. "Helicopter."

The helicopter instantly flew off, propelling its whirling blades, fading away in the night sky.

Alex sat up once it was out of view.

"Marty. Buddy. Listen. Everybody has days when they think the grass might be greener somewhere else."

"As much as I hate to agree with Alex on that; Africa isn't a breeze to get to, and it has its temptations."

By temptations, she means her home. The somethings she wanted to keep to herself, only one: her brother, Levi. He looks a lot like Ayana but should be taller and stronger by now.

The last reminder she had of his complexion was a small rock with their faces painted on it- one she lost the day she lost him.

"Alex, Ayana, look at me." Marty started, cutting off his friend's thoughts, stepping off of the exercise machine to face his friends. "I'm ten years old. My life is half over. And I don't even know if I'm black with white stripes...or white with black stripes."

Marty collapsed against the cold, hard brick of the alley wall. His life was spent doing the same things every day. It wasn't fair. People- even animals- deserve the chance of adventure. So why can't he?

Ayana slipped down so they sat shoulder-to-shoulder against the wall, reviewing their life so far.

What pulled the pair out of their thoughts was Alex's cure for the zebra's blues. "Marty. I'm thinking of a song."

"Alex. Please. Not now."

Not the song. Not that song.

"Oh, yes. It's a wonderful song." Alex reminds, smirking. "I think you're familiar with it." Immediately, noises escape his muzzle, vaguely made a beat and he playfully uses his fingers against the top of the wall like a pair of dancing legs.

"Da da da da da! Da da da da da! Da da da da da! Da!"

"Oh, no. Oh, no, you don't. No, no, no. I'm not listening!" -The zebra covers his ears as the golden cat approached him, and he cupped his hoods over his ears and childishly lapped his tongue to make incoherent noises to drown out his feline friend's singing.

"Start spreadin' the news..." Alex started, sliding on his knees as if part of a musical number.

"I don't know you."

"I'm leaving today..." He zipped to Marty's other side, throwing up his signature jazz hands.

"We are a great big part of it..." Out of Nowhere, Ayana was twirled in the air before until she suddenly fell backward in a dip, suspended in midair by Alex's grasp on her waist. The Leopard was left chuckling lightly at the antic.

"He's funny. Who is that?"

"Come on. You both know you know the words." Alex cooed. "Two little words."

"New York," Marty whispered.

"You too, Ayana." Alex placed Ayana back onto her feet and gave a convincing smile.

"New York."

Alex gathered the two animals on both of his sides in something that could be called a group hug as they sang out the words.

"New York!"

Their voices echoed over the zoo and some of the other residents who were trying to sleep began to scream at them.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up! Hey, I'm sleeping here! We're not all nocturnal, you know!"

"Hey, I'll knock your "turnal" right off, pal!" Marty shouts back playfully.

"Yeah, you and what army, stripes?"

Alex stepped up to Marty's side. "You mess with him, you mess with me and Ayana, Howard." He replies triumphantly.

A snarl interrupted the banter, cutting off the noise of the angry animals like a loud engine.

Marty chuckled a good and warm sound.

"You're a bigmouth lion. And some animal you are Leopard."

"More than you!" She called back.

"See? Mr. Grumpy Stripes." Alex cheered, lightly punching Marty's arm. "We make a great team, the three of us."

"We sure do. No doubt about it." Marty agreed.

"So, what are you going to do? Just go running off to the wild by yourself?"

"No."

"Wait, what?" Ayana asked with just a hint of disappointment.

"Good," Alex commented, relieved.

"You, Ayana, and me. Let's go!" The zebra exclaimed.

"What?" Both felines ask in shock.

"The wild. Come on. You guys and me together." Marty said with an optimistic grin. "It's a straight shot down Fifth Avenue to Grand Central. We'll grab a train, we'll head north. We can be back by morning. No one will ever know."

"You're joking. Right?" Alex asked, a light chuckle escaping his muzzle.

Marty's expression stretched into a frown once more, but he covered it up with a light chuckle. "Yeah. I'm joking. Of course, I'm joking. Give me a break." He says as a breathless chuckle surpassed his lips. "Like we're going to get a train."

"Don't worry. It's cool." Marty says, getting up once again and making his way to a pole. "You know, I got it."

He reared up his front legs and bashed his hooves against the base of the pole. It shook violently, followed by the warbling of the bird sounds into quiet. The only sounds that remained were the screeching of cars and the unruly, rude screams of people all across the city.

"Much better." Alex sighs, closing his eyes to rest.

Marty turned to face the wall, continuously gazing at the mural before him.