Ships Ahoy!

The Rival

The next day, agents were still cleaning pie filling out of every nook and cranny in Odd Squad Headquarters when the latest group of new recruits arrived.

Olive didn't know until a week later, of course. She, along with Oscar, Orrzack, and other agents who'd been critically pied were allowed a day off to recuperate. (Poor Owen was given even longer than that, since Todd had hit the Head of Security Apprentice with over a dozen pies before releasing the pienado in order to avoid being caught. Not that his partner minded—Orchid was counting down the days until Owen's two years in Investigation ended and she could work by herself, so she might have the time on her hands to build a Dinosaur Room.) And when Olive did return to work, the three recruits were already in their final week-long training period in the Training Room. Meanwhile, she immediately got wrapped up in an overwhelming scramble to cover up the Pie Scandal by marking confidential any and all information relating to Todd. Especially frustrating to find and get rid of were the 43s that kept popping up like whack-a-moles all over headquarters, almost as if Todd had been a number hog and suddenly reversed. As crazy busy as she was, Olive had no time to hear anything about three new recruits.

And frankly, things might have stayed that way once they did become agents. Psychologically, there was still so much for Olive to sort through from the day of the pienado, she paid little attention to anything that went on around her. It certainly didn't help that there was an unexpected visit to Dr. O about her hearing, where she got a very odd double diagnosis: the pie in her ears had somehow given her the ability to hear and understand French, Vietnamese, and Lemon, but at the price of developing ASPD. This meant her ears were now too sensitive for loud noises, and Dr. O had to prescribe her a rather gross spinach/chocolate/magnesium pill. So with all this going on, Olive might have never noticed three new agents in her midst.

Except, it wasn't every day that Agent Olaf finally got a partner who understood him.

* * * * *

Oh my god no, I did something wrong. What did I do wrong?

The recruit boy went rigid in a fearful panic. His two agent tour guides and two fellow recruits were gaping at him, and there was no way that could be a good sign. It's gotta be something I said. What did I say? Um, uh, well, we were touring the South Control Room, and I said something back to the one agent, I...think. I dunno, was I not allowed to speak unless spoken to? His panic turned to dread. Are they gonna kick me off the force before I've even joined the squad? Oh no, is my lifelong dream gonna be ruined?

And will I ever live down the humiliation of losing my carefully-crafted confident composure?

The other agent, the taller one with the afro and the strange combination of Science and Investigation uniforms, stepped forward. "Did you just...do you...you know what Agent Olaf said?"

Wait—what? "You mean you didn't?" When the agent shook his head, he turned to his fellow recruits. "Octavia? Oz? Did you?"

"Um, no," Oz said, giving him a weird look. Octavia likewise shook her head, blonde pigtails bouncing.

"What's your name?" the tall agent asked.

The recruit took a deep breath. "Oren," he said slowly.

"Oren," the tall agent repeated. "Hang on a sec." With that he turned and bolted for the stairs to Ms. O's office.

The other agent, apparently named Olaf, tsked a few times. "That Oscar, always running somewhere. He's kind of a funny guy, but he's nice."

Oren nodded and exhaled. "Good to know."

There it was again. "Dude, what do you mean, 'good to know'?" Oz burst out, looking completely flabbergasted. "He literally said 'plunk, plink'!"