Fabulous Five 018 - Teen Taxi Read Online Free Page B

Jeffy could cause an
accident. You simply have to hold him in your lap at all times."
    "Oooooh," Melanie groaned as she sat down hard in
the tall, chairlike seat next to her mother and jerked Jeffy onto her lap. "You
sit still or I'll kill you," she mumbled into his ear. Then she snapped
the seat belt across both of them and took a deep breath to calm herself.
    "There it is. Pebblestone Road," her mother
chirped a moment later.
    Melanie barely glanced up as the big van swung left onto the
street because Jeffy was kicking her shins and trying to wriggle out of her
lap.
    "Jeffy. I said to sit still," she said through
clenched teeth.
    "I want down, " he insisted, planting an
elbow firmly in her stomach.
    "You know what you're going to get?" she
challenged. "You're going to get me sitting on your lap, if you're
not careful," she warned. "Then let's see you move even so much as an
inch."
    She shot an angry look at her mother, who was totally
absorbed in reading house numbers and oblivious to what was going on between
Melanie and Jeffy. Why didn't she take care of Jeffy? Melanie wondered.
Wasn't that what mothers were supposed to do? She opened her mouth to say so
when Mrs. Edwards abruptly sat up straight behind the wheel and called out
triumphantly, "There it is. Fourteen-oh-seven Pebblestone Road." Then
she swung the van into the driveway and beamed at Melanie. "And here comes
our first rider."
    Melanie heard the van door slide open on its tracks, and she
started to turn around to see who was getting in, but Jeffy picked that moment
to try to squeeze himself upward and out of her grip. She tightened her arms
around him and pulled him back into her lap, growling, "Don't you dare!"
in as mean a voice as she could muster.
    Just then the door slammed shut again and Melanie
half-turned to see a hulking form sink into the seat directly behind her. Then
a huge face loomed toward her that was wearing an idiotic grin.
    "Hi, Melanie! Hey, this is great! You and me! Riding to
school together!"
    Her heart stopped. The rider was Brian Olsen.

CHAPTER 6
    If this is a nightmare, please let me wake up, Melanie
pleaded silently as her mother stopped the van squarely in front of Wakeman
Junior High. Over Jeffy's bobbing head she could see students standing in
clusters or walking in ones and twos, all acting as if this were a perfectly
normal day and that everything in the world were okay. But it wasn't, not for
Melanie anyway.
    What am I going to do? she thought. Over her shoulder she
could see Brian Olsen getting to his feet as she unbuckled the seat belt and
let Jeffy off her lap. Brian was still grinning that same idiotic grin he'd had
on his face when he got into the van fifteen minutes ago, and she wouldn't have
been the least bit surprised if he'd started slobbering all over her.
    "Come on, Melanie. We're here! " he shouted
as if he had just given her the greatest news on earth. "Let's get out."
    Brian stretched an arm toward her, and Melanie had the
split-second impression that he was going to scoop her up—the way King Kong
scoops up Fay Wray in the movie—and carry her off. Maybe he'd even make his way
up to the roof of the school with her in his arms and wait for airplanes to
attack. But to her immense relief, he only motioned for her to follow him.
    "Come on," he insisted. "What are you waiting
for?"
    "Umm, I have to talk to my mom for a minute," she
said quickly.
    Brian raked his fingers through his short blond hair as if
he were thinking the idea over. Then he grinned broadly again and nodded. "Okay.
See you around," he called as he lumbered out of the van.
    "Not if I see you first," Melanie mumbled too
softly for her mother to hear.
    "What is it, honey?" her mother asked brightly. "What
did you want to talk to me about?"
    "Oh," said Melanie. "Well, umm, nothing
really. I'd better run."
    "Okay, but don't forget that I'll be here after school
to drive him home and I'll need you to help with your little brother again."
    "Oh, Mom,"