@Jon I guess that depends what your definition of awkward is. I’d prefer:

<span class=“2”>2</span><span class=“4”>4</span> <span class=“w”>w</span><span class=“a”>a</span><span class=“y”>y</span><span class=“s”>s</span>

…as being more readable and workable. But maybe that’s just me.

You could also then use the nth-child CSS selector (although that only works in more advanced browsers).