Life's Full Of Little Surprises

CandieBabie30- Dani and Banks liking each other is always a possibility, but you never know. I'm absolutely ecstatic that you said that you are 'loving it so far'. That's just AWSOME!

PrincessH- Another reviewer who said 'love'? Dude, this is great! (Crazy happy dance) Sorry about that. Anyway, thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy.

hockey-girl90- If my calculations are correct, that's three people who have said 'love' for one chapter. WOOT! It could be an Adam/Dani story, but you'll just have to wait to find out. Glad you like, read on and (hopefully) enjoy.

pipsqweek91- Sibling rivalry does make for some interesting scenarios. I am SO glad that you think that Dean and Dani's sibling rivalry is realistic. I wouldn't know, considering I only have a sister and I don't know the differences between having a sister or a brother. Plenty of thanks for the woot for cuteness

sinbin05- Firstly, thank you for the review. Secondly, I am so gald you like how the story is going. Finally, I'm happy you think Dani is cool. I hope you like this chapter as much as the rest.

It seems my first chapter violated the guidelines. This is a sad revelation, but I'll get over it. If anyone is confused at all about some of my characters, then review me about it. I will be happy to fix the character notes so that they won't violate the guidelines. A big THANKS to my reviewers.

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Dani had arrived to the Mall of America with her mind so occupied that she hadn't been watching where she was going, this caused her to knock into a tall man who was pushing a girl in a wheelchair. "I am so sorry. I should have been watching where I was going." She noticed that both of them were wearing NorthStars jerseys.

"It's okay." The girl answered. She was adorable and had a sweet face with a smile that could melt the coldest of ice hearts. The man looked somewhat familiar, but Dani was sure she had never seen him before. Dani was about to apologize again, but a hand clasped her shoulder and the voice attached mumbled "What did you do?"

Dani looked around to see Gia standing behind her, "It was an accident." Dani protested sheepishly. The man and girl said that it was no trouble and walked into one of the stores, leaving Gia and Dani alone. Dani clasped her hand on her forehead, "I feel like a complete idiot." Gia laughed and lead Dani to a shop that she and Tammy had been looking around in. "So, where's the oh-so clumsy one?" Dani asked.

"I left him with the relatives." Tammy replied as she pulled out a black leather jacket, "What do you think?" Dani looked from Tammy to the jacket and back to Tammy with a wide-eyed look on her face.

"For me, yeah. For you, no." She laughed as she said this. Tammy wasn't a black leather kind of girl, everyone knew that. Tammy gave her a look as to say no-duh-idiot. Dani took the jacket and tried it on, it fit perfectly. "Okay, I'm sold." All three laughed and lucky for Dani, the price was right.

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Dean and Fulton were sitting in Fulton's room listening to music, as usual the volume was blasting the roof off. Despite the volume, they could hear each other and Fulton was keen to hear as to why Dean was in Minneapolis so early. "Dude, would you tell me now?" He asked as Dean mimicked the drummer of the band that was now playing.

"Okay, but you have got promise not to tell anybody anything about what I am about to say." He looked serious when he said this. Actually serious. As that ever happened?

"DUDE!" Fulton cried out and looked as to say 'this is me your talking to!' Dean trusted Fulton, of course, but he had secrets that he would rather stay that way.

"Okay, remember when I mentioned I had a sister?" Fulton nodded his head, "Well she's a figure skater, good to. And she made it to the Olympics, which are being held here, so her coach had her and the others come early. I'm not sure why." Then he changed his train of thought, "Now, if she would just listen to me about that stupid Triple Axle, she'd land it."

Fulton's eyebrows crashed together, "What do you know about landing Triple Axles?" Dean clapped his hand to his forehead muttered 'Did I really say that?'. "YES. Dude, do you know how to FIGURE SKATE?" He was laughing so hard that he was worried that his ribs were going to break.

"Man, shut up. It was my mom's idea and I'm not that good. I just listened to what she was talking about, so I know things, even if I can't do them." He was embarrassed to at point the he hadn't been in years.

"How does your mom know about skating?" Fulton asked, his laughter subsiding slightly. He held his ribs and waited for Dean to answer.

"She skated a little as a kid. She thought it would build character or something." He grabbed Fulton's pillow off of the bed beside him and buried his face into it. How could he be so stupid? He was always so careful to keep the fact that he knew how to do a Lutz to himself, he tended to over-rotate anyway. Why did he bring up Triple Axles? Why was he such a moron? Why was Fulton still laughing, it wasn't that funny. "Are we going to meet the guys or what?" He asked in and irritated voice.

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Terry and Jesse, Charlie, Guy, Averman, Connie, and Goldberg were sitting in a round booth at a McDonald's, waiting for Adam to bring them their tickets to the NorthStars game. Fulton hadn't arrived either, which was an unusual occurrence. The bell on the on the door tinkled and the group looked instinctively towards the door, Adam had just come in. Everyone scooted around to let him in the booth. "So, you got the tickets cake-eater?" Jesse asked as Adam sat down next to Averman.

"Do you need to ask?" Adam joked as he passed the tickets around the table, "My dad got a call before I came here. He has to go out of town so he won't be chaperoning, we have an extra ticket." He held up the two tickets left, Fulton's and the vacancy.

"Then that'll be mine." a voice passing them said as the body attached grabbed the two tickets. The occupants of the table looked, wide-eyed at Portman holding one of the tickets and passing the other to Fulton.

"PORTMAN!" The group said in unison, clearly shocked. Both standing couldn't suppress grins on their faces, this was exactly what they had been hoping for.

"Wow, they catch on so quickly." Fulton joked as he forced Guy closer to Connie, so that he and Dean could sit down.

"What are you doing here?" Charlie asked as Dean reached over to take some of Connie's fries. She slapped his hand away and told him to get his own.

"It's a long story that I would rather not have to recite now." He reached over to grab some of Connie's fries again, and she slapped his hand away again, "OH come on!" He exclaimed as she told him to get his own again. "Dammit." He said as he dug in his pocket, "I forgot my wallet back at the hotel."

"And if you had figured that out earlier, I wouldn't have to be here instead of back at the hotel, finishing up my work." a slightly irritated female voice said from behind the group, Dean was absolutely mortified. Standing near the booth, holding his wallet, was his tall, dark-haired mother. This was made worse by the fact that many of is friends were oogling at her, they actually liked what they saw, in a bad way, this was completely wrong.

He pushed this thought out of his mind, "Do you have me microchiped or something?" How did she know were he was, was the question filling his mind at the moment.

"And if I do?" Dean's eyes widened, "Calm down, Dean. I called Mrs. Reed when I found your wallet. She told me you were meeting some people here." She nodded graciously toward the group, then she walked away. Before making it to the door she turned and said, "You can go to the NorthStars game, just don't be to late." For the last time she turned around and left.

A low whistle sounded from Jesse, "Who was that. She is bangin'. Man, if I didn't have a girl..." He was met with agreements from Charlie, Goldberg, and Terry.

Dean narrowed his eyes and menacingly said, "She's my mother." The group was shocked, and now disturbed, "If you ever say that again, I will beat you to a pulp." He got up and bought a Big Mac value meal.

When he returned, Jesse figured the only way to get anyone to forget what he had said, was to put the spotlight on someone else, "So cake-eater, what happened after Terry and I left the bus." Adam knew this was coming, but he still hadn't been prepared for it. Charlie immediately looked interested about where the conversation was going.

"Should any of us know what you are talking about?" Connie asked as she looked around at Jesse, Terry, and Charlie, who were grinning mischievously, to Adam, who looked scared to death.

Charlie answered first, "I'll tell them." Jesse and Terry nodded, "You see, Banksie, Terry, Jesse, and I were on a bus heading downtown. At the skating rink a girl, gorgeous I might mention, gets on and it's clear Banksie is attracted. We..." He points to himself, Terry, and Jesse, "try to get him to start up a conversation with her, but he comes up with this stupid excuse as to why he won't. So we want to know if he got the nerve to talk to her or not." The rest of the team was now interested in what he was going to say, as they all knew that he was very gentlemanly and wouldn't want say something stupid around someone he was attracted to.

Adam was silent, everyone else groaned, "Did you at least get her name?" Terry asked, looking rather eager to hear details.

"Danielle. Are you happy now? Will you get off my case?" The team whooped at Adams success. His face became red, "I don't get what you guys are so excited about, I probably won't see her again."

"You never know." Charlie said as he started on the Double Cheeseburger in front of him. The rest of the team agreed, but nobody noticed Dean had gone silent ever since the name 'Danielle' had been mentioned. 'There are plenty of girls named Danielle in Minneapolis who skate, right? There is no way it could have been Dani. Besides she isn't Adam's type'.

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The week had gone by rather slowly. Dean spent every day with Fulton and the guys. He made sure that he had his wallet, so he wouldn't have to relive the team oogling his mother, and so that she could finish the work Jeannette had been sending through e-mail. After the first day in Minneapolis, Dani had practice everyday, so she wasn't around that often.

The day of the NorthStars game, Dani left early because her coach had gotten the team tickets, with help from his brother. Dean caught a cab to Fulton's and had to help Mrs. Reed with her car.

"I don't know what it is boys. I filled the gas tank, the oil has been changed, I just don't know what happened." Fulton, Charlie, and Adam groaned from the seats next to him.

"I can fix it Mrs. Reed." He said as he hoped out of the car and opened the hood. He was to busy looking around to listen to the whispers from his friends. He found what he was looking for, a part had come loose and needed to be fixed. He pushed it back in tightly, praying it would stay. "It should work now, but you need to get it to a mechanic." She thanked him and started the car as his friends looked confused, "My uncle is a mechanic, I know this stuff."

The ride had taken about fifteen minutes, so by the time they had gotten to the arena, they were terrified of being late. The others had their tickets, so they had already entered the arena. Getting past security was easy because of the lack of lines, and by the time they reached their destination the National Anthem singer was walking off the ice. But they made it to the game and were able to see the first face-off.

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Dani was sitting in her seat watching the face-off, the NorthStars captured the puck easily, but her thoughts were elsewhere. Normally she sung to herself, she knew she had a good voice, but she never sang to anyone, much less a crowd of only God knows how many people. How did her Coach Orion ever convince her to sing? Oh, right...

Dani, Tammy, Tommy, and Gia were being introduced to the members of the NorthStars by their coach. They were talking about the differences and similarities of hockey and figure skating (mostly with Tammy's help) when the coach walked in the room, thoroughly disgruntled.

"What's wrong Coach?" one of the players asked, "Where's..." He didn't get to finish his question.

"She has tonsillitis and can't sing." He sighed pathetically, "How are we suppose to get someone to sing the National Anthem in ten minutes? TEN MINUTES!" It looked like the throbbing vein in his temple was about to bust.

"Dani can sing." Tommy said almost instantly. "She is really good. I said if she doesn't make it in figure skating, then she can sing as an actual singer." Dani was scared someone was about to bring this up.


"No! No I can't." Dani said in hysterics. Her team members nodded, they had all heard her sing, "I'm a shower singer guys." she added, trying to get the point across that she was terrified to sing in public.

Coach Orion walked up to her and looked her in the eye, "Dani, I've heard you sing and you're really good. Just think of it this way, you'll be helping the team, coach, and the fans."

Dani was thinking how the heck am I going to do all of that? She looked around at the faces in the locker room, "But...I...Well..." Everyone started to look at her with pleading faces, "Okay, fine. Just stop begging, it's pathetic."

Dani had been horrified about going out to sing. But at the end of it she had been very well received, she even got a standing ovation. Sure it was nerve-wracking, but it had actually been kind of fun.