The Tasks.
Early morning, and Clark was outside the Talon loading campaign posters onto the bed of the truck. They were tied in bundles of 100, and Clark laid them side by side so they sat snugly. He'd chosen to set off early to make it look as though he'd be spending most of the day putting up posters and he knew that heading to the Talon early would irritate Lois, who had hoped to lie in for another hour. He couldn't help but grin widely when she'd opened the door with the mother of all grumpy expressions on her face. His cheery good morning salutation had been met with an eye roll and a groan before Lois pointed out the stack of posters.
"Thanks for the ride Clark," said Chloe, stepping out of the Talon with a coffee in hand. She needed to get back to Metropolis but her car was in the shop having developed a steering problem so she'd asked to hop along with Clark. She got into the passenger seat as Clark made his way over to the driver's seat.
"Why are you putting up the posters again?" she asked as Clark started the engine.
"Chloe, you know I can do it in a matter of seconds. Lois doesn't think I can do it at all."
"Oh, so you want to prove yourself to her," replied Chloe with a smirk. She knew that despite the outward bickering, Lois and Clark were firm friends and with the way they often looked at one another when they thought the other wasn't looking, maybe they had the potential to be something more. Chloe had never raised the issue knowing she'd be given short shrift, but her powers of observation meant that she knew what was really happening.
Clark scoffed. "It's not like that. She thinks she can get $50,000 in pledges by tonight, and that I won't manage to put up this many posters in time."
Chloe looked over at him questioningly. "You guys made a bet, didn't you?"
Clark cleared his throat.
"So what does the winner get? No, more importantly, what does the loser get?" she asked. They were nothing if not super-competitive.
"The winner gets to pick a forfeit for the loser, and the loser has to do it," grumbled Clark. He hadn't intended to discuss the agreement with Chloe.
"Interesting," replied Chloe with a glint in her eye, "very interesting."
They were perhaps halfway to Metropolis and the route involved crossing a bridge over the river. It was at that moment that Clark and Chloe heard a sharp slapping sound coming from behind them together with a whistle of wind. Looking in his rear view mirror, Clark's eyes widened and he turned to look at the back window, as did Chloe. One of the campaign posters was stuck to the window, with Jonathan Kent's image smiling and waving at him.
Bring in the winds of real change - Vote Kent for Kansas.
The slogan had been Lois' idea, and she'd got the inspiration whilst driving home and listening to The Scorpions.
They'd got off the bridge and the road carried on through the adjoining small town. Clark pulled the truck into a space and got out, heading to see the back of the truck and removing the stuck poster. Four of the stacks were still intact but the string binding the fifth had snapped after snagging against the side of the bed, sending around half the posters from that stack into the air as they were driving. Looking back over at the bridge, he could see some of them still fluttering in the air but the vast majority had blown over the bridge and down towards the river, ready to be washed away downstream. Clark rubbed his hand in his hair, exasperated. He'd lost the bet before he'd even got started.
Chloe stepped out of the truck and walked towards Clark.
"You could still get all the other posters up. How would Lois even know you didn't manage to do them all?"
Clark looked downcast. It had been a very warm and sunny morning with just a slight breeze. Looking up at the sky, he could make out some dark clouds on the horizon. How apt!
Lois was again pacing about the farmhouse on the phone. She was in the middle of a call talking to the head of the local farmer's union. He'd already pledged support to the Kent campaign on behalf of the union and had ratified some union funds, but Lois was trying to get him to commit more.
"Look Mr Hill, I'm just asking for an extra ten Ks here. I know it's asking a lot but you'll get your money back, and the union will be even stronger for being aligned with Senator Kent. Think about it."
The union head was apologetic and said he couldn't hope to commit so much extra without holding a meeting first, and there was no time for that in the run up to Election Day. He offered $2000 which Lois grudgingly had to accept. The $50,000 target was looking even further away.
The morning had gone without a hitch as the breakfast interview in the farmhouse was recorded by a local TV station, to be aired in the afternoon and on several news programmes. It included a walk and talk as Mr Kent took the interviewer on a tour of the farm, all the while clarifying various elements of his mandate. The intention was to make him look less like a politician and more like a man of the people. It might not have been as slick as Lex Luthor's campaign interviews but it was the message that was being given centre stage. Jonathan Kent wasn't trying to show himself to be someone he was not.
After that, Jonathan had a lunch appointment with his friend Jack. This was a private matter but Jack wanted to take the opportunity to fill Jonathan in on any loose ends from his own senatorship and tell him about which people could be relied upon going forward. It was a way to help ease the transition for Jonathan into his potential new role. This meant Lois was going to spend the rest of the day handling all the other campaign management issues. She'd already agreed for somebody else to cover her Talon shift.
Chloe had called Clark to ask if she could get a ride back home again. He'd long since finished putting all the posters up without being spotted, although tongues had got wagging as people suddenly saw a proliferation of Kent campaign posters whereas before, Lex's prominence had been noticeable. Suicide Slum in particular began to look more and more pro-Kent. Even so, the posters had been tastefully arranged instead of covering every available space like the mosaics of the Lex campaign. There was no air of desperation about it.
Having picked up Chloe from her Met U dorm, the two of them made their way back home to Smallville. Clark wondered how he was going to tell Lois about the poster fiasco.
Lois was now beginning to get a headache. She and the campaign volunteers had been on the phones for hours and had scarcely touched $20,000 in extra pledges. The volunteers had been getting antsy as they also had other places to be and it wasn't long before Lois was on her lonesome. She poured herself another cup of coffee and was about to dial the next number on the list when one of the volunteers popped her head back in.
"Hey Lois, have you seen the news?" She stepped into the Talon apartment's living room and turned up the volume on the TV, switching over to a channel where they were pro-Luthor. The reporter was talking about the campaign posters found washed up in the river, with commentators in the studio gleefully proclaiming the incident to be a metaphor for the Kent campaign. The message being drummed into viewers was that Jonathan Kent was washed up and that Lex Luthor was the future.
Lois could feel the anger rising but at the same time, Smallville the bumbling farmboy would never purposely drop a clanger like that in his own father's campaign. Something must have happened. Just as the volunteer silently made her escape to avoid a tirade from Lois, both Clark and Chloe entered the apartment. Both looked sheepish and weary.
Clark could see the news item on the TV and was quick to apologise.
"I'm sorry Lois. One of the stacks broke free and I couldn't save the posters. I did put up all the rest though. We probably lost most of that stack but that means we still managed to put up more than 400 posters."
Lois' reply surprised him a little. "It wasn't your fault Clark. I've been having a bad day too," she sighed.
Clark gave her an inquisitive glance. "How much did you manage to sweet talk?"
Lois shuffled nervously on her feet, looking down at the floor mumbling, "Tntthosn."
Clark had understood what she'd said whereas Chloe hadn't, but he couldn't help making a show of asking her again.
"Twenty. Thousand. Dollars, Smallville. There, you happy?" she grumbled.
Clark chuckled. "No. You've actually done a great job running this campaign. I can't really fault the effort you've put in. I guess we both just had a bad day."
It was Lois' turn to be surprised by Clark's response. It was a pat on the back and words of encouragement from the least likely person on the planet to offer her that.
They both looked at one another silently for a moment before Chloe cleared her throat, getting their attention.
"So, if neither of you guys won the bet, shouldn't you both have to do the forfeit?"
They both looked at her open-mouthed.