A Fist Full of Fruit Juice Odd Squad

My name is Agent Olive.

This is my partner, Agent Otto.

This is my lucky pencil.

But back to Otto and me.

We work for an organisation run by kids

that investigates anything strange, weird and, especially, odd.

Our job is to put things right again.

Who do we work for?

We work for Odd Squad.

All the shelves on this wall have been

dusted, wiped and scrubbed.

Cleaning day is the worst!

SHE LAUGHS

Good one, partner.

Hold on. You LIKE doing this?

What's not to like?

When dust gets in your nose and eyes

and makes your throat a bit stingy...

Oh, I love it.

Plus, look at all this cool stuff.

This is what Odd Squad looked like,

WAY back in the day.

Whoa.

I remember that place well.

-Let me guess. You were there?

-Yep.

And you worked on Odd Squad?

Nope.

BOTH: No?!

You want to keep doing this back-and-forth thing,

-or do you want to hear the story?

-Story.

I was going to say back-and-forth thing.

Sure, we can do story.

The year was 1870.

The town looked a little bit different in the 1870s.

We only had one car,

and that car was a horse.

Back then, I used to own a fruit stand in town.

And Odd Squad would stop by all the time,

especially these two agents, O'Donahue

and his know-it-all partner, Olga.

Hey, Oprah.

-We were wondering if you've seen any odd stuff going on...

-Hey, hey, hey.

I don't want to get involved with your oddness.

I sell fruit. That's it.

You wouldn't understand, anyway.

Probably not. I'm too busy working on my latest product -

a way to take fruit juice on the go.

I call it "juice in a bag".

It needs some work.

Ugh.

Well, before I get back to it, I'd like to buy some peaches.

I've only got one left.

Nah. What about two of those plums?

Oprah, Oprah!

What's up, Yucks? Got a new joke?

The fruit warehouse was robbed!

That's a terrible joke.

It's not a joke.

SHE GASPS

It's really weird, too. Like, we had 14 cherries,

but he only took seven of them.

We had ten strawberries,

but he only took five of them.

That sounds odd to me.

Oprah, I need you to come down to the squad and file a report.

Ugh. Missing fruit AND dealing with Odd Squad?

This is the worst.

Yucks, watch the fruit stand.

Sure thing, boss.

Oh, and I had an idea for your "juice on the go" system.

Juice in a boot.

Wow, that is awful!

Yep, still bad.

Take a seat, Oprah.

So... Any idea who might want to steal your fruit?

No clue.

All I know is that they must have struck yesterday.

Too bad Olga had the day off yesterday.

She's got a knack for catching thieves in the act.

Well, whoever this thief is,

he didn't touch my five bananas,

or three pears, but decided to go after

the 14 cherries and 10 strawberries.

Wait. Five and three. Those are odd numbers.

And 14 and 10 are even numbers.

I'm not sure I follow.

Even numbers can be divided into two equal groups.

Like my ten strawberries.

One, two, three, four, five,

six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

See?

Five and five.

Odd numbers, like the five bananas he didn't touch, can't be divided.

Two bananas here, two bananas here.

But you have one left over.

So, what are you saying?

Maybe it has something to do with odd and even numbers.

Oh, puh-lease!

It's got nothing to do with numbers.

This is about colours.

Cherries and strawberries? Both red!

And who likes red things?

BOTH: Big Red.

Meow!

What do you mean? What are you talking about?

I didn't steal a thing!

In fact, just the other day, 6 of my 12 mailboxes were stolen.

Then why didn't you report it?

Better question, why did you have 12 mailboxes?

First of all, I love getting mail.

Second of all, I did report it. I sent a telegram yesterday.

Express overnight delivery for Odd Squad.

Amazing, isn't it?

You can send a message to someone in just one day!

Zheesh! Someone should invent a way to do this faster.

Like an instant textual messaging delivery service.

Eh, that will never work.

Can we focus here? On my fruit?

We'll get back to that later.

SHE GROWLS

I was so angry with Odd Squad.

A week went by, and I hadn't heard a thing.

Also, my "juice on the go" system wasn't making much progress.

I think I got it!

Juice in a net.

I feel like we're moving backwards.

Hey! Odd Squad. It's been a week.

My missing fruit has probably gone bad by now!

Sorry, Oprah.

But we got nothing.

Well, if it makes you feel better, why don't we buy some fruit?

-How many oranges have you got?

-Three.

Nah.

-What about apples?

-11.

Nah.

I see you've got ten mangoes over there. I'll take five of them.

Odd Squad! Odd Squad!

My dog turned into a cactus,

and I can't pet him without screaming in terrible pain.

Excuse us, Oprah. We've got to take care of this.

Yeah.

I still want to know why my fruit has gone missing!

Yucks, bring that little fold-y paper thing with you.

It's time to take matters into our own hands.

What is this place?

I need a room to review the numbers.

I'm calling it the Mathematical Figuring Out Locale.

Sounds catchy(!)

Thanks!

So, we started with 14 cherries, and 7 were taken away.

So, how many did he leave behind?

One, two, three, four, five,

six, seven. Seven.

Next, we had ten strawberries.

And five were taken away.

Ten minus five equals...

One, two, three, four, five.

Five strawberries went missing.

What about the 12 mailboxes?

Big Red said six of them went missing.

12 minus 6 equals...

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Six.

Weird. He stole seven cherries and left seven behind.

He stole five strawberries and left five behind.

He stole six mailboxes, left six behind.

Yucks, you're onto something!

I am?

Everything he stole was split evenly into two groups,

which means the original amount was an even number.

14 cherries, 10 strawberries,

and 12 mailboxes. All even numbers.

He likes even numbers!

And that's why he didn't take any of our five bananas or three pears,

because they can't be split into two equal groups.

They're odd numbers!

Oh, no. I just realised something.

Yeah.

Used banana peels are a terrible idea for a juice transport.

No! Big Red still has six mailboxes.

And six is an even number.

Which means it can be still be split into two equal groups.

Three and three.

Which means...

the thief will be heading back to steal more mailboxes.

I got to warn O'Donahue. Yucks, box this stuff up.

Box!

So, we're just going to let the thief

steal three more of my mailboxes?

Big Red.

Oprah, sure this is going to work?

Numbers don't lie.

Can we at least tell Olga?

Sure. She's right there.

Let's move.

-Stop right there!

-Argh!

Olga, say it ain't so.

Ugh. How did you know I'd be here?

It all came down to how you ordered your fruit.

You only wanted two of my four plums, and when I offered you

three oranges or eleven apples, you weren't interested.

Odd numbers. But when you spotted ten mangoes,

you wanted half of them.

Good job, Oprah.

But better job, me!

THEY GASP

You'll never catch me!

Maybe they won't, but I will,

thanks to my new invention!

Argh!

-Nice work.

-Way to go, Yucks.

-Yeah

SHE GROWLS

Yay!

APPLAUSE

And since O'Donahue no longer had a partner...

You joined Odd Squad.

No. First, I delivered newspapers in Norway.

But that wasn't for me.

And THEN you joined Odd Squad.

No. Then I became Queen of Portugal.

And THEN I joined Odd Squad.

What happened to Yucks?

I still saw her every day.

She took over the fruit stand.

But nobody wanted to drink from a Yucks Box.

So I told her to use her last name instead.

Mm. Yucks Shnumbers. You've really got something here.

Credit goes to Olga!

She's the one who cuts all the fruit exactly in half,

making sure there's equal amounts in every box.

Odd Squad.

As a token of thanks for getting my mailboxes back,

I'm developing a way for you Odd Squad agents

to get around faster. I call it the Tube system.

It'll squish you into a ball

and whoosh you around anywhere in the world.

I'll start digging it right now.

Mm, that'll never work.

No way, cowboy.

Hey, Olga! Nice cutting.

SHE GROWLS

Done.