Fabulous Five 018 - Teen Taxi (8 page)

"Look at this!" Katie said, putting the teen
magazine down on the table so the other members of The Fabulous Five could see
what she was talking about. It was Saturday afternoon and they were sitting in
Taco Plenty, the fast-food restaurant at the mall. "Can you believe that
they wouldn't let the girl who wrote this letter play quarterback on a football
team for nine- to twelve-year-olds? That's archaic!"

"Who wouldn't?" asked Jana.

"Why would she want to?" asked Melanie.

Katie pointed to a letter in the
Dear Bob
column. "The
officials wouldn't let her, that's who. They said she could get hurt, and Bob
agrees with them."

"Well, she could," agreed Beth.

"That's not the point," Katie protested. "Anyone
who plays can get hurt. If she's good enough, they ought to let her do it.
Girls play on baseball teams. I'm going to write
Dear Bob
and tell him what
I think of him. I don't know why they let a man write this column anyway.
Mostly girls read the magazine."

Christie joined in. "But football's different. It's a
contact sport."

"Maybe it is, but Geena McNatt could play on a football
team and do real well, if she wanted to," said Katie.

"I have to agree with you about that," said Jana,
giggling. "The only reason they might not let Geena play on Wacko's team
is she could hurt someone else."

"What's the big difference?" asked Melanie. "There
are lots of other things she can do. Girl things."

"Don't you see?" Katie complained. "She doesn't
want
to do those other things.
That's
the big difference. That's
the trouble with everybody. They say girls can do some things, but they can't
do others. I don't want anyone telling me what I can or can't do."

"Well, that wouldn't happen at Wacko," said
Christie. "Girls can do anything they want there."

"Hey, if you want to try out for the football team next
fall, go ahead," said Beth. "I'll bet they'd let you, but I wouldn't
want Geena McNatt's brother Max leaving his footprints all over me."

Katie flipped the magazine closed. "That's the trouble
with everyone. They don't realize how much bias there is, even at our school. I
bet Elizabeth Cady Stanton wouldn't let them get away with not letting
her
daughter play football."

Jana looked puzzled. "Who's Elizabeth Cady Stanton?"
she asked.

"See!" Katie retorted. "Do any of the rest of
you know who she is?" The others shook their heads.

Katie rolled her eyes. "She was only the person who
started the whole women's movement, that's all. If it wasn't for her, women
probably still wouldn't be able to vote."

"Look," said Beth. "When you run into
something that you can't do because you're a girl, let me know. I'll help you
protest. But I'm not going to get bent all out of shape over a letter to Bob."

Frustrated, Katie looked at her friends. They all seemed so
unconcerned. Couldn't they recognize bias against females when they saw it?

Katie gets her chance to defend women's rights a lot sooner
than she expects. Only her efforts backfire, and she finds herself in trouble
with a lot of people, including Tony Calcaterra, the other girls in Wakeman
Junior High, and the school principal. But Katie also gets unexpected help from
someone from a long time ago in
The Fabulous Five #19: The Boys-Only Club.

Betsy Haynes, the daughter of a former newswoman, began
scribbling poetry and short stories as soon as she learned to write. A serious
writing career, however, had to wait until after her marriage and the arrival
of her two children. But that early practice must have paid off, for within
three months Mrs. Haynes had sold her first story. In addition to a number of
magazine short stories and the Taffy Sinclair series, Mrs. Haynes is also the
author of
The Great Mom Swap
and its sequel,
The Great Boyfriend
Trap.
She lives in Colleyville, Texas, with her husband, who is also an
author.