Madagascar and OC! REWRITE!

Marty's Birthday

At a single lamppost- the bond of their pens, and maybe their friendship- in the center of five enclosures, the bricks walls formed a star.

The large animals all gathered at the lamppost to celebrate today's special occasion: Marty's tenth birthday. How could anyone forget?

Melman gave him a thermometer. Alex presented a snow globe, Gloria made a cake, and Ayana had given him paint so he could dress up more often and decorate his body and stripes.

"Ooh, it's Marty's birthday!" Gloria sang.

"Happy birthday, bud."

"Just rip it open. Come on." Alex encouraged.

"What is it? What is it?" Marty asked as he shook the present.

"Come on. Open it up." Alex encouraged once more, to which he finally obeyed.

Marty opens the box to see his present. "Yeah!"

"What you get? What you get? What you get?" Gloria asked excitedly.

"A thermometer. Thanks. I love it, Melman. I love it." He twirled his new gift in the air and caught it with his mouth and smirked and crossed his arms.

"Yeah, I wanted to give you something personal. You know, that was my first rectal thermometer." Melman explained as he smiled softly, but Marty looks at his new gift in disgust.

"Mother-!" He gagged at the thought and spits out the thermometer while licking his tongue.

As Marty turned his back for a moment, everyone else got into position and hummed loudly to grab the zebra's attention. He looked back as they began to sing a spritely tune.

"Happy Birthday to you. You live in a zoo. You look like a monkey-" They all switched off at every word, taking turns in chanting the birthday song.

"Aaaaaaand!" Melman drawled out.

"you smell like one, too." They finished in a flourish of grins and chuckles.

Mason overhead and took a spit take with his tea. "I say!" He gasped, looking at the other zoo animals as Mason sniffed his armpit, fainted, and fell out of the tree branch and lands on the ground, passed out.

"Aw, well, now, you guys are just embarrassing me. And yourselves." Marty tells them.

"What are you talking about? We worked on that all week." Alex remarked, grabbing his steak. "Wouldn't take us so long if someone would actually show up to practice instead of sleeping. Ayana."

The female leopard stuck her tongue out playfully.

"Let's go. Let's make a wish, babycakes." Gloria tells the zebra, presenting a small chocolate cake nearly dripping with frosting and gummy candies. Marty thought for a moment before furiously blew out the bright, neon candle and plunged his mouth into the cake. He came away, snout coated in a thick layer of smeared, snowy white frosting.

"Come on. What'd you wish for?" Alex pondered, lounging on his brick wall casually.

"Nope! Can't tell you that." Marty replies, shaking his head.