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Fabulous Five #18
Teen Taxi
When Melanie Edward's mother decides to start a teen taxi service for students at Wakefield Junior High, Melanie is horrified. Not only is she going to be the laughtingstock of the school, but because she has to ride along, her social life will be ruined.
- GenresYoung Adult
120 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1990
37 people want to read
About the author
Betsy Haynes
123 books111 followersABOUT ME
Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?
My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade
I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.
Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.
I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.
Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?
My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade
I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.
Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.
I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.
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November 8, 2023Teen Taxi
Melanie has decided to name Rainbow’s puppies after her friends and crushes. Beth teases her that she named the fourth boy dog “Brian”” after an obnoxious boy who is crushing on Melanie. But she’s named it “Jason” after her favorite movie star Jason Ryder. Melanie's mom appears and says she has a surprise. The surprise turns out to be she got a van. But… she’s going o start a teen taxi business and she’s going to transport kids back and forth from Wakko Jr. High. Melanie does NOT think this is a good idea.
Melanie goes over to Garett the next day and over to help him with his things. He always seems to have a ton of stuff and puts it to Melanie he needs an assistant. She says she’s always been interested in photography. He tells her to speak with mr. Neal about joining the Wigwam staff. She knows she’ll have to carry a ton of stuff but it’s a way to get closer to Garrett (and possibly get a date with him). So she says she will. But her mom bursts her bubble when she shows up and she finds out she’s going to see the principal about starting her taxi service.
Laura asks her about it. She says she thinks it’s weird. Some other people at school ask her about it but are more polite. Melanie thinks if she can just talk her out of it. So, she goes to her after school. Before she can say anything she says she thinks her business is going to be even more profitable than she thought. Then she starts talking figures. She says she can make up to 200.00 a week. Mrs. Edwards says she’s going to ride so she can watch Jeffie. She’ll also have to cut out some after-school things. Melanie brings up cheerleading, but Mrs. Edwards says it’s the off-season and besides its just temporary. She says they’ll work things out when Melanie complains about her social life and helping Garett. Melanie tells her they can’t just leave the puppies, but her mother says she already called to put an ad in the paper.
Melanie decides to sabatauge her mom’s business by talking to her potential customers. So, she talks to Shawine, Kevin, Michelle, and Michelle. She tells Shawna and Kevin her mom will make them late. She tells Michelle the bus will be overly crowded with boys. (Michelle is kind of shy). Melanie tells her friends her plan and they don’t approve of what she did. They tell her tho they’ll call her and tell her what happened at Bumpers and they’ll run off any girls that try to talk to her boys.
The next morning, Melanie’s plan worked. Her mother has three cancellations. Jeffie doesn’t behave the first day of riding in the taxi. She has to hold him in her lap. They pick out their first customer. It’s Bryon Olsen. Later he asks if he thinks Melanie’s mom will mind if he brings bricks and boards on the bus. He’s a brown belt in karate. He asks if she’d like to be his assistant. He wants to give a karate demonstration at a school program tomorrow. She turns him down with the excuse loud noises give her a headache.
The Fabulous Five tell her at lunch, Scott is getting teased about Bryon riding the bus with her. They ask her if there’s something she can do to turn Bryon off. Melanie’s never even considered this and has no idea. Katie suggests they ask some boys what turns them off. All the girls say they’ll ask all the boys they know. The first one Melanie asks is Shane. He says he hates when girls gossip. Then she ask Curtis. He says when girls talk about guys (how handsome they are, how big a jock, etc). She asks Garett. and he says when a girl religs on a promise. YESSS! BEST ANSWER! Then he asks her to meet him in the yearbook room after the bell. He’s working on something. Melanie wonderws how she can tell him after what he told her.
After school, her friends tell her they’ll tell her what the guys say at Bumpers. Melanie stalls hoping all the kids will be join when she comes out. She hears Bryon has been telling everyone he has a private taxi and he embarrassed her at school by telling her he’ll meet her at the taxi stand. Bryon tries to show off for Melanie. He drops out of a tree and starts doing chin ups. When they get in the van, Jeffie seems to have developed a boy crush on Bryon and sits by him on the bus. Melanie isn’t all that impressed and just gives him a smile when he asks what she thought. Mrs. Edwards is cool with the bricks. Bryon now has two members of his fan club (Jeffie and Mrs. Edwards who thinks he’s nice and so strong).
Melanie goes to check on the puppies and to see if there have been any calls. As she plays with them she can’t imagine giving any of them up. Jana calls and they talk about Bryon’s antics. Her mom wants her to get off the phone so she won’t tie up the line. Jana tells her Randy’s answer. He says he doesn’t like girls who are insincere. Then Jana tells her she heard Garett wants her to be his assistant and then asks doesn’t he know about the teen taxi. Melanie tells her why she can’t tell him. They decide maybe they can’t do anything about Garett or Bryon but they can tie up the line (all the Fab Five) so no calls can get through about the ad for the puppies.But it doesn’t work, as soon as she gets off she gets a call about the puppies.
Melanie tries to get Jeffie to use his tears to keep the puppies, but he no longer wants them. One of them peed on him when he picked it up. That night Beth tells her Keith doesn’t like girls who have superior attitudes. Katie says Tony can’t stand girls to point out his faults and bad habits. Christie says John doesn’t like girls who always talk about dieting. He thinks they’re just fishing for compliments. The next morning, Mrs. Edwards hands Melanie some fliers and tells her to pass them out. She wonders if she’ll believe it if she says she lost them. Bryon is all excited about the assembly and makes Melanie promise she’ll be in the front row. (She knows she won’t). Bryon starts showing off his muscles and Melanie tries to think of a turn off to use. But she doesn’t get a chance. She “accidently on purpose” leaves the fliers on the floor.
Melanie hears one of the girls at school say how things are looking very lovey on the backseat of that van, but before she can say it’s a lie, Garrett hears and walks off. Surprising herself Bryon is great at the assembly and she’s impressed by his skills. She thinks maybe she should be nicer to him. But after th e assembly he hands her a piece of brick and tells her what he shouted out was her name. Melanie is totally mortified. Melanie tries to get out of riding the teen taxi that afternoon, but her mother isn’t hearing it. So, she goes to Garett and tells him she can’t be his assistant. She tries to explain but he walks off asking if Jeffie’s the reason or is it Bryon.
On the bus, she tries the turn offs. She says Laurie makes her friends do special favors for her. Then she says she she starts listing the things she cares about (the homeless, the environment, the war against drugs). She says she can’t stand people who aren’t caring. Bryon kind of shrugs. Then she says she can’t stant people who are insincere. She says she plans to do something about the homeless, the environment, and drugs when she had time. Bryon kind of squirms. The conversation is cut off when they reach Bryon’s house. She has another idea. She calls Shawnie and tells her she lied. Her mother is a great driver. Then she calls Kevin and tells her her mother is always on time. Then she calls Michelle and tells her the taxi isn’t that crowded. Maybe if the taxi is full there won’t be rumors about anything happening between her and Bryon in the back seat.
A man (Mr. Datsun) and his son come about the puppies. So now “Garett” the puppy is gone. Her mom tries to convince her that eventually, mothers have to let go of their kids, but Melanie worries that they don’t know how the people getting the dogs will treat them. The next day, Mrs. Edwards says they got four more calls and she’s excited that there will be more people joining them on the teen taxi. On the ride to school, Melanie notices Bryon hasn’t said anything to her. So she starts talking to Shawnie about how cute Scott Daley is, She keeps talking and saying she prefers him to boys that are showoffs. Jeffie leaps up and defeats his new friend. Bryon gets off the bus without a word leaving Melanie feeling guilty. (She tries to say she wasn’t talking about Bryon but everyone in the taxi knows she was).
At lunch, Beth says Bryon is now saying she’s snotty and a gossip and not who he thought she was. Melanie says she didn’t mean to hurt him. Now she feels like a jerk. As Melanie puts up the fliers later she realizes that the teen taxi service wasn’t a laughing joke. No one made fun of it but Laura and her friends. While she’s putting up fliers over the water fountain, she runs into Bryon. They’re both embarrassed. He speaks and keeps walking. He’s also quiet in the taxi. Melanie just decides to let things fade out and over time he’ll forget her and move on.
The bus gains popularity and turns into a party bus. More puppies get sold. “Katie” is given to a little girl whose dog was hit. Now the taxi is full and Mel doesn’t have to worry about talking to Bryon. Jeffie becomes so popular with the kids that Mrs. Edwards relieves Melanie of her responsibilities to ride the bus and watch him. She confesses what she did in the beginning and why. Then she tells her mother that Bryon was telling everyone she and he were making out in the bus, but her mother doesn’t believe it.
Mrs. Edewards gives melanie the good news that she’s going to be interviewed by the news who heard about the taxi and thought it was a great idea. She calls Garett and says she can now be his assistant and they talk a long time. But Bryon is still on her mind. She can’t get him off of it. Melanie apologizes to Bryon on the bus and he says she should have just said she didn’t like him that way. He apologizes to for her liking someone else. All of a sudden they hear honking. It’s another van. It’s Channel 2 and they stop, let the camra woman and crew on, and they record a segment for tv. But YIKES the camera person has the camera on them sitting together.
My Thoughts
This wasn’t a bad idea, I didn’t blame Melanie tho for not wanting her mother to drive the teen taxi. It didn’t have anything to do with embarrassment for your mother being a taxi driver. For me, it would be because I wouldn’t have wanted my mother to be my teacher (and she was a teacher). As much as you love your parents, you need a little SPACE. If you see them in the morning before you go to school, then you see them on the teen taxi, then you see them after school at home, it just kinda feels like OVERKILL for a middle or high schooler. I would *NOT* to do this to my child if I had one. Then why did Mrs. Edwads pick WAKKO JANIOR HIGH? She could have picked the elementary school. She could have picked the high school. Not all high school kids have cars. I didn’t. She could have made just as much money. I don’t think parents think sometimes. But Mrs. Edwards was cool enough to lget Melanie go when she got a little success and let her have a life. Then it was just amusing to me that Sean, Scott, and Garett are all cool with Melanie dating one of them, but when she dates (or they think) she’s interested in someone else, it’s a problem. SMH!
Rating: 5
Melanie has decided to name Rainbow’s puppies after her friends and crushes. Beth teases her that she named the fourth boy dog “Brian”” after an obnoxious boy who is crushing on Melanie. But she’s named it “Jason” after her favorite movie star Jason Ryder. Melanie's mom appears and says she has a surprise. The surprise turns out to be she got a van. But… she’s going o start a teen taxi business and she’s going to transport kids back and forth from Wakko Jr. High. Melanie does NOT think this is a good idea.
Melanie goes over to Garett the next day and over to help him with his things. He always seems to have a ton of stuff and puts it to Melanie he needs an assistant. She says she’s always been interested in photography. He tells her to speak with mr. Neal about joining the Wigwam staff. She knows she’ll have to carry a ton of stuff but it’s a way to get closer to Garrett (and possibly get a date with him). So she says she will. But her mom bursts her bubble when she shows up and she finds out she’s going to see the principal about starting her taxi service.
Laura asks her about it. She says she thinks it’s weird. Some other people at school ask her about it but are more polite. Melanie thinks if she can just talk her out of it. So, she goes to her after school. Before she can say anything she says she thinks her business is going to be even more profitable than she thought. Then she starts talking figures. She says she can make up to 200.00 a week. Mrs. Edwards says she’s going to ride so she can watch Jeffie. She’ll also have to cut out some after-school things. Melanie brings up cheerleading, but Mrs. Edwards says it’s the off-season and besides its just temporary. She says they’ll work things out when Melanie complains about her social life and helping Garett. Melanie tells her they can’t just leave the puppies, but her mother says she already called to put an ad in the paper.
Melanie decides to sabatauge her mom’s business by talking to her potential customers. So, she talks to Shawine, Kevin, Michelle, and Michelle. She tells Shawna and Kevin her mom will make them late. She tells Michelle the bus will be overly crowded with boys. (Michelle is kind of shy). Melanie tells her friends her plan and they don’t approve of what she did. They tell her tho they’ll call her and tell her what happened at Bumpers and they’ll run off any girls that try to talk to her boys.
The next morning, Melanie’s plan worked. Her mother has three cancellations. Jeffie doesn’t behave the first day of riding in the taxi. She has to hold him in her lap. They pick out their first customer. It’s Bryon Olsen. Later he asks if he thinks Melanie’s mom will mind if he brings bricks and boards on the bus. He’s a brown belt in karate. He asks if she’d like to be his assistant. He wants to give a karate demonstration at a school program tomorrow. She turns him down with the excuse loud noises give her a headache.
The Fabulous Five tell her at lunch, Scott is getting teased about Bryon riding the bus with her. They ask her if there’s something she can do to turn Bryon off. Melanie’s never even considered this and has no idea. Katie suggests they ask some boys what turns them off. All the girls say they’ll ask all the boys they know. The first one Melanie asks is Shane. He says he hates when girls gossip. Then she ask Curtis. He says when girls talk about guys (how handsome they are, how big a jock, etc). She asks Garett. and he says when a girl religs on a promise. YESSS! BEST ANSWER! Then he asks her to meet him in the yearbook room after the bell. He’s working on something. Melanie wonderws how she can tell him after what he told her.
After school, her friends tell her they’ll tell her what the guys say at Bumpers. Melanie stalls hoping all the kids will be join when she comes out. She hears Bryon has been telling everyone he has a private taxi and he embarrassed her at school by telling her he’ll meet her at the taxi stand. Bryon tries to show off for Melanie. He drops out of a tree and starts doing chin ups. When they get in the van, Jeffie seems to have developed a boy crush on Bryon and sits by him on the bus. Melanie isn’t all that impressed and just gives him a smile when he asks what she thought. Mrs. Edwards is cool with the bricks. Bryon now has two members of his fan club (Jeffie and Mrs. Edwards who thinks he’s nice and so strong).
Melanie goes to check on the puppies and to see if there have been any calls. As she plays with them she can’t imagine giving any of them up. Jana calls and they talk about Bryon’s antics. Her mom wants her to get off the phone so she won’t tie up the line. Jana tells her Randy’s answer. He says he doesn’t like girls who are insincere. Then Jana tells her she heard Garett wants her to be his assistant and then asks doesn’t he know about the teen taxi. Melanie tells her why she can’t tell him. They decide maybe they can’t do anything about Garett or Bryon but they can tie up the line (all the Fab Five) so no calls can get through about the ad for the puppies.But it doesn’t work, as soon as she gets off she gets a call about the puppies.
Melanie tries to get Jeffie to use his tears to keep the puppies, but he no longer wants them. One of them peed on him when he picked it up. That night Beth tells her Keith doesn’t like girls who have superior attitudes. Katie says Tony can’t stand girls to point out his faults and bad habits. Christie says John doesn’t like girls who always talk about dieting. He thinks they’re just fishing for compliments. The next morning, Mrs. Edwards hands Melanie some fliers and tells her to pass them out. She wonders if she’ll believe it if she says she lost them. Bryon is all excited about the assembly and makes Melanie promise she’ll be in the front row. (She knows she won’t). Bryon starts showing off his muscles and Melanie tries to think of a turn off to use. But she doesn’t get a chance. She “accidently on purpose” leaves the fliers on the floor.
Melanie hears one of the girls at school say how things are looking very lovey on the backseat of that van, but before she can say it’s a lie, Garrett hears and walks off. Surprising herself Bryon is great at the assembly and she’s impressed by his skills. She thinks maybe she should be nicer to him. But after th e assembly he hands her a piece of brick and tells her what he shouted out was her name. Melanie is totally mortified. Melanie tries to get out of riding the teen taxi that afternoon, but her mother isn’t hearing it. So, she goes to Garett and tells him she can’t be his assistant. She tries to explain but he walks off asking if Jeffie’s the reason or is it Bryon.
On the bus, she tries the turn offs. She says Laurie makes her friends do special favors for her. Then she says she she starts listing the things she cares about (the homeless, the environment, the war against drugs). She says she can’t stand people who aren’t caring. Bryon kind of shrugs. Then she says she can’t stant people who are insincere. She says she plans to do something about the homeless, the environment, and drugs when she had time. Bryon kind of squirms. The conversation is cut off when they reach Bryon’s house. She has another idea. She calls Shawnie and tells her she lied. Her mother is a great driver. Then she calls Kevin and tells her her mother is always on time. Then she calls Michelle and tells her the taxi isn’t that crowded. Maybe if the taxi is full there won’t be rumors about anything happening between her and Bryon in the back seat.
A man (Mr. Datsun) and his son come about the puppies. So now “Garett” the puppy is gone. Her mom tries to convince her that eventually, mothers have to let go of their kids, but Melanie worries that they don’t know how the people getting the dogs will treat them. The next day, Mrs. Edwards says they got four more calls and she’s excited that there will be more people joining them on the teen taxi. On the ride to school, Melanie notices Bryon hasn’t said anything to her. So she starts talking to Shawnie about how cute Scott Daley is, She keeps talking and saying she prefers him to boys that are showoffs. Jeffie leaps up and defeats his new friend. Bryon gets off the bus without a word leaving Melanie feeling guilty. (She tries to say she wasn’t talking about Bryon but everyone in the taxi knows she was).
At lunch, Beth says Bryon is now saying she’s snotty and a gossip and not who he thought she was. Melanie says she didn’t mean to hurt him. Now she feels like a jerk. As Melanie puts up the fliers later she realizes that the teen taxi service wasn’t a laughing joke. No one made fun of it but Laura and her friends. While she’s putting up fliers over the water fountain, she runs into Bryon. They’re both embarrassed. He speaks and keeps walking. He’s also quiet in the taxi. Melanie just decides to let things fade out and over time he’ll forget her and move on.
The bus gains popularity and turns into a party bus. More puppies get sold. “Katie” is given to a little girl whose dog was hit. Now the taxi is full and Mel doesn’t have to worry about talking to Bryon. Jeffie becomes so popular with the kids that Mrs. Edwards relieves Melanie of her responsibilities to ride the bus and watch him. She confesses what she did in the beginning and why. Then she tells her mother that Bryon was telling everyone she and he were making out in the bus, but her mother doesn’t believe it.
Mrs. Edewards gives melanie the good news that she’s going to be interviewed by the news who heard about the taxi and thought it was a great idea. She calls Garett and says she can now be his assistant and they talk a long time. But Bryon is still on her mind. She can’t get him off of it. Melanie apologizes to Bryon on the bus and he says she should have just said she didn’t like him that way. He apologizes to for her liking someone else. All of a sudden they hear honking. It’s another van. It’s Channel 2 and they stop, let the camra woman and crew on, and they record a segment for tv. But YIKES the camera person has the camera on them sitting together.
My Thoughts
This wasn’t a bad idea, I didn’t blame Melanie tho for not wanting her mother to drive the teen taxi. It didn’t have anything to do with embarrassment for your mother being a taxi driver. For me, it would be because I wouldn’t have wanted my mother to be my teacher (and she was a teacher). As much as you love your parents, you need a little SPACE. If you see them in the morning before you go to school, then you see them on the teen taxi, then you see them after school at home, it just kinda feels like OVERKILL for a middle or high schooler. I would *NOT* to do this to my child if I had one. Then why did Mrs. Edwads pick WAKKO JANIOR HIGH? She could have picked the elementary school. She could have picked the high school. Not all high school kids have cars. I didn’t. She could have made just as much money. I don’t think parents think sometimes. But Mrs. Edwards was cool enough to lget Melanie go when she got a little success and let her have a life. Then it was just amusing to me that Sean, Scott, and Garett are all cool with Melanie dating one of them, but when she dates (or they think) she’s interested in someone else, it’s a problem. SMH!
Rating: 5
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August 27, 2020 As a kid every Saturday we went to Kmart, and every Saturday my mom would let me buy one thing, and it was ALWAYS a fabulous five book. (The cover looks like a spiral notebook cover... I thought that was very clever)
I also managed to track down all the Taffy Sinclair books at a thrift store.
I wonder if this series is still at my parents I would definitely read them again.
I remember in the Taffy books Melanie was chubby and it made references to her eating brownies and then one day she was like NO i don't want the brownie... and then she got skinny.
This is a very vague memory... so don't quote me on this one, what you CAN quote me on is that Taffy had a crooked bicuspid, and Jana ate cream cheese and jam sandwiches,... which I tried because of her and they were DIS-GUS-TING, and I never trusted her again
I also managed to track down all the Taffy Sinclair books at a thrift store.
I wonder if this series is still at my parents I would definitely read them again.
I remember in the Taffy books Melanie was chubby and it made references to her eating brownies and then one day she was like NO i don't want the brownie... and then she got skinny.
This is a very vague memory... so don't quote me on this one, what you CAN quote me on is that Taffy had a crooked bicuspid, and Jana ate cream cheese and jam sandwiches,... which I tried because of her and they were DIS-GUS-TING, and I never trusted her again
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March 29, 2015I read several Fabulous Fives growing up - they didn't stand out as too interesting and were a little over-dramatic, but they worked for my age group at the time. I liked the clique and the girls involved as they went through different situations at home, school, and together.
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