Life's Full of Little Surprises
Disclaimer: I own absolutely none of the 'Mighty Duck' characters or the rights to the "Mighty Duck" franchise, that honor belongs to Disney. So I would appreciate that I wouldn't get sued over something I don't own.
Summary: Dani's life couldn't be going better. She has finally made it to the Olympics, doing the sport she loves the most. But... after arriving in Minneapolis, Minnesota things change. First she is constantly badgered by her brother, then she falls for one of his friends, and, of course, there is always a stalker!
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PrincessH- Tammy does have guts to stand up to people when she wants to have them. I kind of figured that she would be the best person to drop Dean down a few notches; glad you agree. Thanks!
foreeverjinxed- Thank you, I like to know that my story is appreciated. I know that my chapters tend to be short sometimes, but I have this thing about rambling. I ramble a lot when I talk to people and it tends to get confusing for them and me, I don't like to do that when I am writing, so I do look at the size of a chapter to make sure I don't ramble. The chapters might be somewhat longer soon, especially as they get closer to the Olympics and what I have planned at that time.
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Thanksgiving. The one day that meant the most to Kal and Alyssa Portman. The day that caused their twins the most pain. Why had no one called or written or something to tell them what was going on? Did they honestly not think that they wouldn't know? Dani sat in her dorm room, while Dean had dinner with Fulton and Mrs. Reed, both of them with their minds on the dinner that their parents should be sharing at that moment. Both twins shook the thought out of their heads and continued with what they were doing.
As Dean ate, Dani sat alone in her room, staring at the most recent of 'gifts', left for her by the 'secret admirer' that was leaving things every week without fail. Today, a plain yellow package with bubble wrap inside had been left in front of the door after Tammy and Gia left to meet their families (or in Gia's case, her fiancé, Dale's, family). As she ran her fingers under the flap and ripped the thick paper, she shuttered and sighed, almost fearing what she might find.
Many times, Dani had asked herself why she didn't just call the police or throw away the gifts, and she never had an answer. It was as if she was a robot and she couldn't push the gifts away and Dani had a sinking feeling that that was what whoever was doing this wanted. She sighed again as she placed her hand into the package and pulled out a petal-less rose. Her hand was covered with red from smashed petals and she let a tear drip from her eye as she pulled out the final part of the gift, a picture of Adam. She turned it over and read the inscription that had been written in magic marker.
You're better off without him. He doesn't care about you. You may feel pain now, but it will all be over soon. All we have to do now is rid ourselves of your brother and we can be happy.
Dani choked as she read this. She didn't want to believe that Adam didn't care about her, he had told her that he did. Then why did he dump her? No! He had his reasons to break off their relationship, but he did care about her, and nothing that this sick freak said -or wrote- would change that.
Dani wiped her tears away as her cell phone rang, she didn't want anyone to know that anything was wrong. She wiped the rose petals off of her hand and picked up her phone, "Hello."
"Hey, baby." Dani scowled.
"Baby? Who the fuck are you calling 'baby', Malone?" Dani spat, "If I remember correctly, I dumped you after I found you at the Senior Ditch Day party with Rita Seline's tongue down your throat. And after that, I find out that since I didn't have sex with you, you found plenty of love from Maria. Whom you are currently dating."
"Yeah, those were mistakes, babe. You know I love you."
"Wilson... Fuck off and leave me alone." Dani said sourly, "I hate you and I wish that you will fall, break your neck, and die from choking on your own puke. And I'm sure that Maria is waiting for you right now, so find her."
"But Dani-cakes, sweetie buns..."
"Don't call me that." Dani snapped, "I am not a pastry of any sort, so leave me alone. I'm over you."
"Oh, I doubt that."
"Well, don't," Dani said quickly, "I have a new boyfriend." She feigned looking at her watch, "Oh, look at the time. I have to go get ready for my date. Bye." She snapped the phone shut and sighed again, pulling a pillow to her chest and stuffing her face into the pillow.
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Becky sighed as she made her way from her wheelchair to the pool that she used for physical therapy. She only had an hour of therapy left and then she could go home and eat all the turkey and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie with whipped cream that she wanted. Becky remembered what Dani had said about her foot ticking and she smiled, there could be hope after all. Looking around the room, Becky couldn't help but wonder about the other people in the room with her. Most of them were adults or teenagers, but did they have a nice Thanksgiving to get to?
"Hi Becky." Becky jumped, "Calm down sweetie."
"Hi Mattie." Becky replied, "I didn't hear you."
"Well, I have been known to walk lightly." Mattie said, "What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing." Becky said dismally.
"Yeah, I believe that." Mattie said sarcastically, "Come on, tell me, all of my patients are gone for the day. Besides, I'm here to help you. Your regularly scheduled nurse is out of town for the holiday, so your PT asked me to help fill in for the last part of your session."
"You sounded like a public service announcement just then." Becky replied, "'Your regularly scheduled' sounds like what they say on TV when they interrupt what you are trying to watch with a 'public service announcement' for 'the betterment of the community', when all it really is for is to tell you that there will be two inches of snow that night and to watch for more of the story at 11:00."
"You know a lot about that kind of stuff, don't you?"
"I can't really do much else." Becky retorted, slightly more angrily then she had intended.
"I know, honey. I'm sorry."
"No, I'm sorry." Becky responded, "I guess that I go my hopes up that maybe one day I would walk again... But that's never going to happen."
"Hey, Becky... There's always a miracle."
"I highly doubt that that is the case this time." Becky sighed again.
"Becky, feeling sorry for yourself and being a pessimist is not going to help much either." Mattie said, "You have to be confident and say 'I can do this!', even if no one else wants to believe you."
"Dani believes me."
"Okay, one of these days, I'm going to have to meet this 'Danny' that you keep talking about." Mattie said, "Is he your boyfriend?"
"No." Becky replied, trying not to laugh, "It's spelled D-A-N-I, it's short for Danielle. She's a member of my uncle's team."
"Oh, whoops." Mattie said, blushing, "Now that's an embarrassing blunder for me, myself, and I." Becky laughed lowly, but it was enough for Mattie to hear her, "Well at least I got a laugh out of you, bebé." (Spanish: Baby.)
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Scooter pulled his black tee shirt over his still wet head. Basketball practice had been over for a good thirty minutes, but he enjoyed having the locker room to himself, it was quite and good for thinking. At least, it usually was... "Scooter." A pompous voice said from behind him. Scooter froze, 'Please be dreaming... This isn't happening...' He urged himself. "What? No welcome for an old friend?"
"We haven't been friends for a long time, Rick." Scooter replied, "Not since you showed me your true colors." He turned around to face his former friend and captain.
"'True colors'?" Rick asked, "What are you talking about?"
"All the pranks and trying to get the Ducks kicked out and..." Scooter stopped, he didn't want to remember the last bit, but Rick egged him on, "what you wanted me to do."
"Oh right..." Rick laughed, "I remember that. I wanted you to land the Cat and to get the Varsity some enjoyment afterwards."
"And if you remember correctly, I didn't enjoy the idea of a Gang Bang on Julie as much as you liked the idea." Scooter was ready to spit in his face, or punch him, either would work.
"Yeah... You always were a little prudish."
"Prudish?" Scooter asked indignantly, "I think the term 'moral' is what should come to mind. As in I have them. You know, morals?" Rick laughed, making Scooter want to A) get out of there as fast as possible, and B) puke.
"Scooter, Scooter, Scooter." Rick said as if he was tsking him, "She's a little immature for you, don't you think? I mean, you could do so much better."
"Oh yeah?" Scooter asked, too caught up in defending Julie to notice that Rick was getting closer to him by the second, "Like who?"
Rick laughed, "I was hoping that you would ask that question." Scooter furrowed his eyebrows as Rick smiled. A second later, Rick had Scooter's head in his hands and pulled Scooter's mouth on his own. Scooter struggled against the very strong person that was holding him against the wall. He placed his hands on Rick's chest and was finally able to push him off.
"What are you doing?" He asked, stunned. He placed his hands on his lips to stop the throbbing pain that was setting in. 'Mindy was right, he is rough... Not what you need to think about Scooter!'
"Well I would think that that was obvious."
Scooter shook his head, trying to comprehend what was going on, "Look, man, I am happy that you found this part of yourself... But, if you haven't noticed, I'm with Julie... who is a girl." He punctuated every word of the last part of the sentence to get the fact that he was straight through Rick's head.
"I think I can fix that." Rick said with a conniving tone in his voice. Scooter backed away, but Rick was able to grab his collar and push him back against the wall, crashing his lips onto Scooter's in an tense, heated, passionate kiss (in Scooter's case it was also awkward, uncomfortable, confusing, and immensely painful).
"WHAT THE FUCK?" A voice called making Rick pull away. He turned towards the door, Scooter's collar still in his hand, and smiled at what he saw.
"Julie." Scooter whispered as he pushed a distracted Rick off of him, "Julie, please. This isn't what it looks like." Scooter's heart was breaking into pieces as he watched a tear drip from Julie's eye before she ran off, "Julie, wait!" He screamed, running after her.
"Let her go." Rick said in a pseudo-seductive voice as he grabbed a hold of Scooter's wrist, "You don't need her."
"Get off of me, Rick." Scooter said as he wrenched his arm out of Rick's grasp, "JULIE!" He called as he ran off to find her.
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Julie had been lucky to get to the bus stop just in time to get on the bus en route to Edina before it left, she seriously needed her mother, sister, and all the chocolate she could lay her hands on. She practically jumped off of the bus when the door opened and raced down the street to her mother's house. "Oh please be home." She begged, "And don't let Adam see me."
She raced up the front steps and eagerly knocked on the door. Through the door, Julie heard the surprisingly comforting Dutch accent of Adriaan mumble something along the lines of 'alright, I'm coming', he wasn't in the best of moods. However all of that changed when he opened the door and saw Julie, "This is a pleasant surprise."
"Is mom or Piper here?" Julie asked as she tried, unsuccessfully, to keep her tears to herself.
"Of course." Adriaan replied in a soothing tone, "Jada, Piper. You have a visitor in distress." Julie listened to her sister jump down the stairs and her mother's soft footsteps come from the direction of the kitchen.
"Julie?" Piper asked.
"Honey? What's wrong?" Jada stepped back a little in surprise when Julie clasped her arms around her and began sobbing. "Adriaan, could you..." Adriaan nodded and left the room.
"Julie?" Piper asked, placing her hands on Julie's tense shoulders, "Jules? What's wrong? What happened?"
"Come on." Jada said as she led her daughters over to the couch. Julie momentarily noticed that the couch smelled like her Gram Prince's (better known as just Grams) perfume, but she was too distraught to dwell on that fact for long. "What's wrong, baby?"
"Oh nothing." Julie said, "I just found my boyfriend in the boys basketball locker room making out with another guy. A guy that I hate and I think must die, I might add."
"Scooter did what?" Piper asked, "I'm going to kill him!"
Jada cast her a stern glare, "There will be no killing of anyone." She said, "Jules, are you sure that you saw what you think you saw?"
"Mom," Julie said, "His lips were on Rick Reily's lips... I saw it, and now I want to forget it."
"Who's Rick Reily?" Jada asked.
"The old Varsity's captain." Julie explained, "He started a prank war against the Ducks last year and he tried to get us all kicked out of Eden Hall." The doorbell rang and Julie looked over in the direction of the door.
"Adriaan, can you get that. Please." Jada called. Adriaan nodded for them to continue as he rushed passed.
"You got a crackerjack there mom." Julie sniffled.
"I still say I want to kill Scooter." Piper said, "Or at least cause him major physical pain."
"You don't need to." Julie turned towards the door and saw Scooter standing next to Adriaan with his hands in his pockets. She sniffled again and threw a large pillow at him, which caught him directly in the face. "Okay, I deserve that. But, Julie, I swear that it was all Rick. I would never to that to you, I care to much about you."
"Yeah, yeah." Piper mumbled, clearly taking her sister's side.
"Piper Addison." Jada scowled, "We'll give you two some time alone." She made to move and pull a reluctant Piper with her, but Scooter stopped her.
"No need, I did what I came to do." Scooter replied, "I'm sorry Julie, I'm still here if you want me to be." He turned to leave.
"Wait." Julie said abruptly. Scooter couldn't stop the feeling of giddiness and happiness surge through his heart as she stopped him. He turned, "How did you find me?"
"I called the Ducks." Scooter replied, "All of them were at Charlie's place and I asked if they knew were Piper lived. Apparently Adam knows really well."
"No really?" Piper asked sarcastically.
"Piper." Julie scolded, "Please shut up."
"I'm just saying." Julie glared at her and Scooter turned back around to leave. She watched him through the window as he got back inside his car and drive off.
Julie groaned as laid her head in her mother's lap, "Why does dating have to be so complicated? And why does the gay man have to have the hots for my boyfriend?"