sᴛᴀɪʀᴡᴀʏ ᴛᴏ ʜᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ ━ ᴊᴀꜱᴏɴ ᴛᴏᴅᴅ

★ ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔱𝔥𝔯𝔢𝔢 ★

DJ FELT LIKE SHE HAD JUST LAID DOWN TO SLEEP WHEN DICK WAS WAKING HER BACK UP.

She grumbled a tired, "Snooze." Before turning over in the passenger seat and promptly going right back to sleep. Dick chuckled, and tried again. They were parked outside a little diner in some town, and DJ had told Dick to wake her up either when they got to their planned destination, or when they were getting food. Rachel was much easier to wake up, tiredly sitting up from the backseat where she had laid down to get some rest, and left the car to wait outside.

But DJ was tired as fuck and quite comfy in her little space in the car, and didn't feel like getting up quite yet.

"Aren't you hungry?" Dick asked teasingly, DJ immediately waking right up and sitting up.

"Oh my God, why didn't you lead with that? I'm starving." DJ exclaimed, voice heavy with sleep, but grinning at the prospect of food.

She jumped out of the car and greeted Rachel. Without waiting for either of the other two, DJ merrily went into the diner and sat in a booth, waiting for the waitress to bring over a menu. "Wasn't she asleep like thirty seconds ago?" Rachel asked with a slight amused expression. Dick smiled, but didn't answer. He led the way to the booth DJ had chosen, sitting down across from DJ and Rachel.

They waited a few minutes for the waitress to come by with their menus, Rachel getting a black coffee, but DJ getting a full breakfast. She unapologetically dug right into her food when it arrived, totally ignoring the other two in her group having a conversation that seemed pretty important.

It took her all of five minutes to finish her food, leaning back into her chair with a sigh. "Jesus, food is the eighth great wonder of the world."

Rachel shook her head. "How did you eat all that so quickly?"

DJ sat up in her chair and stacked her two plates and pushed them to the center of the table. "It's a skill one could only learn while growing up with so many siblings. Eat fast or they'll steal it right off your plate. 'Watch out for the redheaded bitch, he'll eat your french toast and laugh in your face about it'."

Rachel wasn't sure she wanted to ask who 'the redheaded bitch' is, or comment on the dark look in the older teen's eye, but she was saved the trouble by DJ asking Dick, "So who of your friends are we going to? Donna?"

Dick shook his head. "No. You've never met these two. They're in D.C. And we better go if we want to make good time."

Rachel and DJ got out of the booth and waited for Dick to put some money on the table, then went back to the car.

The car ride was uneventful, with DJ trying to distract Rachel from thinking about the horrors the younger teen had been through, by playing as many car games as she could think of. They went through several rounds of the license plate game before Dick announced they had arrived to their destination.