Author’s Note: Yay! It’s Kerth season again! For the last two years, I have used the Kerth challenges as prompts for my Try Not to Change Anything series. I’ve decided not to continue that this year (though I might come back to it someday) but I still want to do as many of the challenges as I can and hopefully give my lazy muse a kick in the pants in the process.

Writing Challenge #1:
Scavenger Hunt!:
Lois and Clark participate in a scavenger hunt at the Planet. The winning team gets $5000 donated to the charity of their choice. The losing team has to wear whatever the winning team chooses for a week (or do something similarly embarrassing).
Feel free to have Lois and Clark on the same team OR on separate teams. You can set this in whatever season you like and you can have them win or lose.
Don't be afraid to get creative with the items they have to find!

So, I wasn’t going to do this one at first, but last night (while I was SUPPOSED to be sleeping) my brain decided to play around with the idea a bit and came up with something. It’s short and sweet. Figured I’ll bring back Ficlet Friday.

Summary: Lois and Clark can’t agree on which charity to donate to so they challenge each other to the hardest game of seek-and-find they can come up with.

Microfiche and Shoulder Pads
By Amanda K

“I hear what you’re saying, Lois. Reporters Without Borders is a great organization and they do help people by making way for journalists to report on problems worldwide. I’m just saying that Save the Children has a more direct and immediate impact for those in need.”

Clark leaned back in his chair in the conference room and casually tossed a wad of paper into the trash can. “Two points.”

Lois rolled her eyes at her husband’s antics. “The Daily Planet is a newspaper, Clark. It’s our duty to support other journalists worldwide. What helps them, helps us. Besides, look at the long-term value – Journalistic freedom can lead to change and a better world for the future. Save the Children might help the kids right now, but does it cause the change needed to prevent childhood poverty in the future? It’s like the give a man a fish/teach a man to fish argument. Reporters Without Borders opens doors for journalists to show the world what is happening so that changes can be made.”

“But do they need $5000? How will they spend it? A few fancy dinners, shmoozing politicians to open those doors? I’m not saying that kind of work isn’t sometimes necessary. Just that Save the Children can stretch the money a lot farther – feeding orphans, building houses, digging wells.”
Lois sighed and ran her hands through her hair. They weren’t getting anywhere with this. “Remind me again why we have to decide this?”

“The paper won an award which came with a $5000 donation to charity. The suits told Perry to decide. He delegated it to us.”

“And we can’t delegate, why?”

Clark shrugged. “Who would we delegate to? Jimmy?”

“Point taken.” Lois stood up and began pacing around the room. “So, what do we do? They’re both good charities. How should we decide?”

Clark picked a quarter up from some loose change that had been left on the table. “Flip you for it?”

Lois’ mouth twisted to one side. “Too simple.”

Clark perked up at the note of challenge in her voice. He liked where this was going. “A contest then?”

She grinned back at him. “A contest.”

*~*~*~*~*

Ten minutes later, the couple found themselves down in the archives, surrounded by racks of microfiche.

“Okay.” Clark said, clapping his hands together. “Just to review the rules – we’re doing a seek-and-find?”

“Scavenger hunt,” Lois corrected.

“With microfiche.”

“That’s right. We each have a copy of the list. First one to find all five items wins. And no cheating with super powers.”

“Obviously.” Clark conceded. It wouldn’t be fun if he had an unfair advantage. He looked at his list.

1. A front page headline involving food
2. A wedding announcement with a double alliteration (can’t use ours)
3. A photo of Superman in his “shoulder pad” cape
4. An ad for space rats
5. A weather forecast for snow in April

He shook his head at the reference to his “shoulder pads”. Lois had insisted on that one. It would be pretty easy to pinpoint the time frame for that one – although there weren’t many photos of him in that particular suit. He was glad that his mom had reworked the design in short order.

This was definitely going to be an interesting challenge. Speaking of shoulder pads… He grinned as an idea popped into his head. “Do you want to up the ante?”

Lois grinned back at him. “What did you have in mind?”

*~*~*~*~*

Three days later, Jimmy stopped Clark on the ramp down into the bullpen. “Hey, CK! Is everything okay?”

“Sure Jimmy. Everything’s fine. Why do you ask?”

Jimmy shrugged. “I just noticed that this is the third day in a row you’ve been wearing a plain tie – no patterns. I think the only times I’ve seen you in a plain tie have been for weddings and funerals. So what gives? Did you lose a bet?”

Clark rolled his eyes but smiled. “I lost a scavenger hunt to Lois. She decided I had to wear plain ties for a week. Boring aren’t they?”

“I guess. It’s just not you, is all.”

“Tell me about it.” Clark continued down the ramp to his desk but turned back when Jimmy called out again.

“What would Lois have to wear if you’d won?”

“Shoulder pads – really big shoulder pads.”