"Alright gang, we've got to do this right."
"Amen, Chuck!" Brenda said, staring at her phone.
"You're going to have to put that down," Chuck pointed first at Brenda's phone, then at various classmates' devices. "This is a no-phone-zone for the next eight hours. They're a parasite that will leach your attention from the task at hand."
There were groans as the kids put their phones away, but all of them did it; they knew they were lucky to be here on this particular assignment. Other kids in their class had to do harder work, or worse: attend lectures like "an introduction to non-Euclidean geometry."
"When do we start?" asked Amy, bouncing on her toes.
"Right now!" Chuck flashed a smile that defined his personality. "The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go to the picnic. I don't know about you all, but I can already taste the sweet tea."
Everyone's minds filled with tasty treats, so it took a minute to get the group into task-oriented squads. These two on filling balloons, these six on making signs, three for music (an odd number to break ties), and so on. Chuck made sure everyone got a task and everyone was reasonably happy with the task they'd been assigned.
Naturally, there was a little dilly-dally throughout. Naturally, everyone had to work double speed to finish things up before the deadline. But the gymnasium was decorated for the masquerade in time and the sweet tea never tasted better.
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