Xavi struggled to pull a smile out when she said they'd be working in pairs. It wasn't that he didn't like to work with other people, he really did. The problem was that often he felt the work would get done twelve times faster if everyone worked individually. Which maybe was not the best strategy for everything, but for making a tin-can phone, he felt it was.

He set off for the table to gather supplies and figured he would just start working, then if anyone was partnerless after everyone finally got sorted, they could join him, and the work would be mostly done already.

Two cans, one string, one nail, one hammer. He had done this with his sister when they were smaller and sometimes at night strung the apparatus between their two bedrooms so they could tell jokes until they fell asleep. Now that he was older, it seemed a little ridiculous, but still, fond memories and whatever.