For what its worth

It seemed like since High School, Jason and Richard were always competing against each other for something, It probable didn't help that they both were competitive in their own right.

Whatever the contest did not matter. They both wanted to be on the top of the heap. Bowling, skiing, tennis, cooking, it did not make a difference. Some have said that they would compete for who loaded up the grocery basket the fastest if there was a contest for it. And what was to come next was no exception.

The mayor, Mayor Beck announced that a scavenger hunt was going to take place in a month, and that it would encompass the whole town and the next town over.(was only 3 miles apart). Anyway, you guessed it,'t the both were the first to sign up. But what a surprise when the mayor announced that it would be teams and not individual. And Jason and Richard were assigned on one team. Now they were going to have to work together. That would be a first for both of them.

The guys thought that never in a million days that they were going to be on the same team and working together, or wanted to for that matter. But, they both wanted to win, that was obvious, and they reasoned that if they were going to win that they were going to have to work together to figure out the clues

The rules were fairly simple. Each team had their own mission. And they had to find each answer together and had to get to the spot together or they couldn't advance to the next clue.

Rarely did they agree on anything, so this was going to take a lot of swallowing pride and agreement on the answer for once for this to work.

The day of the hunt finally came, and both families had to endure the talk of Jason and Richard. You can imagine what that was like.

But here they were and all teams were ready to go after it. The prize was pretty hefty. Dinner for them and their family and the fanciest restaurant in town, The Blue Plate. Very fancy. Plus a 500 dollar prize and if that wasn't enough, the winner would have use of the city car complete with fuel bought by the city for 30 days.

Definitely worth the race, they both thought. Noooow could they make this happen without driving each other crazy.

They got their first clue which was going to take them to the pumpkin farm to literally find a large needle in a certain haystack.

On your mark, get set, Gooooo said the mayor, and off the teams went. But no sooner were Jason and Richard off, and argument started.

This way, no this way. Read the clue again brainy, said Richard.

I did and its this way argued Jason. They finally agreed(don't know how) and amazingly went to the right haystack and found the needle. Then it was off to destination 2

This clue would take them to the paper mill outside of town. And they would really have to work together, because one would need to hold a tall ladder while the other climbed up to the top of the old tower to retrieve the next clue. "we are losing time arguing man," said Jason. "your right, said Richard. You are a better climber, and indeed he did. In fact he scaled that ladder like it was stair steps al least 30 feet to the tower. On to number 3

Maybe this constant bickering and competing against each other is not working. Lets get this done together, each one agreed. And soon they were at the old well just out of town.

Time was getting close, and they were behind a little so quickly the both cranked the old bucket on the rusty pole to get it up and grab the box for number 4.

Now things were working. It was down to the last clue, and 3 teams were almost neck and neck. Jason and Richard were starting to see each other in a different way than they ever have and see that there was something special about the other. This would come in handy because the final box was in the next town and they had to get there by, Ready for this, skateboard by team.

However they could they had to board 3 miles to Anston, grab the final box and make it back in time, and the clock was ticking.

Richard was a great runner, Jason was a great skater, ( hockey team), so they decided if this was going to work, Richard would start off running while Jason was on the board. Halfway, they would trade off, and hopefully the plan would work.

Getting there was ok, getting back was a chore. Both were getting tired, but they had to so they traded off pedalling the board. Noone would think that 2 people could be on the same board.

They could here the cheers of the town as they were getting close to the finish line. They didn't know if any of the other teams were done, since all the teams had a different path to follow.

O well, they poured it on and the cheers really helped. Win or lose they were finally doing something together.

As they crossed the line, the boys looked around to see what place they came in. Mayor Beck went over to them and gave them the biggest hug and hand shake. Turned out. two of the teams actually dropped out. Not sure why, and so it was them and team Michaels from Michaels Hardware. They were even more in shape and could easily make it back quickly.

Richard and Jason waited beside their families while Mayor Beck came to the mike and announced that Team Michaels were disqualified due to trying to cheat to win. Richard and Jason were elated. They had accomplished more together, in one day than they ever tried to do in 5 years. And they realized that they had each other as a trusted friend.

Oh, they were always to be competitive. But they had each others back, and now were in it for each other.

Even, when Jason eventually moved to the state capital for work, they still remained close friends. Ribbed each other as always, but a simple scavenger hunt was all it took to meld two people together as friends