A soft breeze filled the park's air as the Autumn feel settled in on Mordecai and Rigby, who sat on the steps to the house with their coats on and a soda in their hands. It had been a few weeks after CJ had left town to pursue a new academic field of life. Mordecai had been downed by her leaving for a little while, but he had went back to normal in no time. As Rigby slurped the last bit of drink from his can, he crushed it and chunked it at another empty can only three feet away, missing by inches. Mordecai laughed as Rigby ran over and kicked the can into a bush. "Dude, dude, you stink at throwing."
"Shut up! I'm good!"
He laughed a little bit longer as he crushed his can and threw it, in which it hit Rigby's chest and landed next to his foot. Rigby looked at Mordecai angrily, then began to laugh along with him. Benson parked the cart in front of the garage and took the key out of the ignition. He watched as the two friends laughed together, and scooted by them. "Hey guys, can you two meet me in my office for a second?" Rigby moaned as he slowly walked up the stairs; "Fine..."
Sitting down behind his desk, Benson opened a compartment and took out an item that he held in his hand. Unaware as to what it was, Mordecai and Rigby sat in the two chairs opposite Benson. Before he spoke, Benson sighed as he thought of what to say. "It has come to my attention that you two want to go see the ball game in Kansas, I think it was...?" Mordecai nodded as Rigby slumped further into his chair. "But we don't have a way to get there." Rigby added. Benson hummed for a moment, then dangled the keys from his hand in front of Mordecai; "Here, you two can take the truck. I've noticed you two have been working hard lately and I thought I'd let you two have a few days off. And besides, CJ lives in Kansas now, doesn't she?"
Mordecai was a bit caught off guard that Benson knew this, though he understood Benson's reason in mentioning CJ. "Yeah, she does." Benson smiled as Mordecai took the keys and held them in his hand, shocked that Benson was nice enough to let him go. "Now go get you guys' stuff together. We will see you off tonight.
That night, Mordecai had already put his and Rigby's items and bags in the bed of the truck under a protective tarp for the weather. Skips, Benson, Muscle Man, Fives, and Pops stood outside the house, sharing their goodbyes and their good lucks. Pops gave Mordecai and Rigby some lollypops for the trip, telling them it was enough for gas. But without Pops seeing, Benson slipped Mordecai some money for the trip there, back, and enough food for their three day vacation. As they waved goodbye, Mordecai started the truck, rolling up the windows and pulling out of the park, following the GPS Benson had installed for reasons like this. After a few minutes, they had stopped at a gas station to fill the tank before going any further. Mordecai filled the tank as Rigby went inside and bought some doughnuts and some sodas. Rigby came back smiling, showing the CD he had also bought to Mordecai. "Dude, this is like the coolest music around!"
"Yeah," Rigby gloated, "all the hits from '08!"
Back on the road, Rigby put the disk in and turned the volume up. The track started with Ne-Yo's "Closer". They sang along to all the songs for miles until the music stopped and the CD had finished. Mordecai looked over to see Rigby passed out with a half-eaten doughnut hanging out of his mouth. He laughed, then returned his eyes to the road. It had been a while since they had been on a road trip, let alone one they greatly enjoyed. His eyes seemed to slowly get heavier as he continued down the road. He took a long sip from his soda, waking him up a little. Eventually, he got off the highway and parked in a free parking zone. Shutting the truck off and locking the doors, Mordecai pulled his pillow and cover out from behind his chair and settled comfortably in the seat. He studied the trucks and cars around him with their sleepy drivers inside. He cracked a smile as he buried his head into his pillow and drifted to sleep.
The next morning, Mordecai was awaken by his friend, who opened the door and got back in the truck. "Sorry 'bout that, I had to use it." Mordecai shook his head as he started the truck and drove back onto the highway. It was around four in the morning when they started driving again, meaning they only had a few hours of sleep. Rigby insisted that Mordecai let him drive, but he continued to tell Rigby that Mordecai actually had a license. Rigby pouted over this for a short while, but got over it quickly.
"So Mordecai," Rigby began, "do you remember that book you tried to get me to read?"
"Which one?" Rigby began to look around behind his seat for the book. "The one where this guy like tries to save the town and gets like super powers." Mordecai glanced at him confused as to what he was talking about. "Do you mean that old comic book I gave you when we first got to the park?"
"Yeah, that's the one. But get this, I looked the website up you got it from, and there are loads of new ones still being made!"
"Well," Mordecai started slowly, "I'm not really into comic books anymore. I've grown up."
Rigby finally found it, but it wasn't the book Mordecai had given him. "What's that?" Rigby looked at him, as if he were advertising the book; "Do you like adventure and action, mystery and cheesy love stories? Well this is the series for you, Commando Johns!" They both laughed at how poorly Rigby presented the book. Rigby opened two sodas, one for him and one for Mordecai. He began reading, which surprised Mordecai. After a while, he realized Rigby was just looking at the pictures. He tried not to laugh as he continued driving until the gas tank was below a quarter full. Pulling into another gas station, Rigby sat in the car looking at the pictures a second time as Mordecai got the both lunch from the restaurant next door to the station. He was a little surprised that nothing bad had happened yet, but he didn't want to jinx the trip. Getting back in the truck and after finishing his food, his phone rang as he was pulling out of the gas station. He answered it and drove carefully;
"Hello?"
"Hey Mordecai, it's me, CJ!"
"Oh, hey, how have you been?"
"Good. I heard you are coming to see me."
"Oh yeah, I am. I had to bring Rigby though." Rigby squinted at him, then returned his gaze to the comic book.
"That's okay. So when are you going to arrive? We've been dyeing to see you!"
"Wait, who's we?"