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- I thought someone might get a little confused by so many of the OC's showing up, so this wasn't really unexpected. The problem is that I can't really tell you why Alec and Cami came into the picture, but don't worry, this will be answered soon. Dani's friends had to stay (if only to be an annoyance to poor Dean). As for Tammy, she will be showing up a lot more in the next few chapters and as we get closer to the Olympics. Thanks for the honesty!
Dragon Tamer Ruth- Woot, new reviewer! Thank you, I hope that you like what happens next. Not just YAY, but a BIG YAY for the Bash Brothers; I know a lot of people who like the Portman strip-tease scene.
hockey-girl90- I appreciate the fact that you like what is going on!
BrokenAngel1753- THANK YOU!
Lilmonkey1507- As I said before, I am glad that your friends like this story as well. I am glad that you say you can't wait to see what happens next, I do try to keep things interesting.
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11:00 meant lunch time for Dani, but she had always been able to get something quickly. This was a good thing, because Cami had asked her a favor and Dani had no problem doing so.
11:00 also meant class change for the Ducks, and Dani ran into Averman and Luis first. They were digging through their lockers when Dani came up behind them and tapped them on the shoulders, "Les? Luis?" She asked as they turned to face her.
"Darling," Averman said, "No need to call me 'Les', you can just call me by my last name." He was smiling.
"Really?" Dani said in faux excitement, "Now I feel like I'm one of the group! I'm excepted, YEA!" She put her hands together and looked up at the sky as if thanking God. Then she turned to Luis, "And what should I call you? ¿Varo'n-puta? ¿Hombre de las señoras?" (Spanish: Male-whore? Ladies man?).
Luis laughed, "Just call me Luis. What exactly did your brother tell you about the Ducks?"
Dani smiled and replied with, "A lot of things. Like you asked him about a tattoo during the Junior Goodwill Games." She said, facing Averman again. "And you got scared."
"He frightened me!" Averman said in an over-dramatized voice. He placed his arm on his forehead and cried out, "I have never been able to move on. I need a shoulder." He finished as he placed his head on Dani's shouldered and fained sobbing. Dani patted him on his back.
"Poor Averman," Dani said in a consoling voice, "Do you need a kiss?" Averman looked up immediately, shook his head vigorously, closed his eyes, and puckered his lips out as far as they would go. Dani laughed, turned Averman's head, and gave him a small peck on the cheek. "Dean also told me that you stole Rick Reily's girlfriend." Dani added to Luis as Averman stood there with a glazed over look in his eye and a goofy smile on his face that only he could fake so well.
"Well, what can I say?" Luis laughed, "¡Soy un hombre de las señoras!" (Spanish: I'm a ladies man!). He said this just as a blond girl in a cheer leading outfit came up to him and kissed him.
"I can tell." Dani said as the cheerleader pulled away. "Luis?"
"Oh, right." Luis said, "Dani, this is my girlfriend, Mindy. Min, this is Dani Portman. Dean's sister."
"The figure skater?" Mindy asked, Dani nodded, "You look a lot different then you do on t.v."
"I normally have on a lot of make-up on on t.v." Dani replied. "Averman, wake up!" She said, snapping in Averman's face. "I was here for a reason. You guys briefly met Cami earlier this week, right?"
"Cami?" Mindy asked.
"Max's sister." Luis said, "Yeah, no personal introductions or anything, but we sort of met her."
"She's pretty." Averman said.
"She's also dating my older brother." Dani told him, "And he is as bad, if not worse, then Dean." Averman snapped his lips together, "Well, she is an artist and she wanted me to get a picture or two of every member of the Ducks, so that she could draw portraits and stuff. So would you two mind?" She asked, holding up a camera.
"Sure." Luis said, pulling away from Mindy and standing up against his locker, with his infamous ladies man look on his face.
"That's great, thanks Luis." She took his picture and then turned to Mindy, "Could I get one with both of you?" Mindy nodded and walked up next to Luis, together they looked like everything your mother warned you about on your first day of school, "Thanks."
"Now watch the master at work!" Averman declared as he stood up against his locker and began to pose. He would flex his muscles (if he had any), or try to look intellectual by placing his hand on his chin, or squint his eyes and squish his face together. Dani couldn't help but laugh, he was exactly the goof-ball that Dean had warned her he would be.
"That's good." Dani said, Averman looked sad, "I need to have enough film to get shots of everyone else."
"But you'll come back to me of you have any left, right?" Averman asked with a puppy pout on his face. Dani laughed and assured him that she would, "Okay then. Bye."
"Adiós, chica." Luis said, waving to her. (Spanish: Good-bye, girl.)
"Hasta la Vista." She said to Luis (yes, hasta la vista is Spanish to those who don't know!), "It was nice to meet you, Mindy." Dani said, turning and shanking Mindy's hand.
"Pleasure to meet you." Mindy said sweetly. She wasn't exactly the type of girl that Dani could see going out with Rick Reily. But then again, Dani couldn't see any type of girl dating Rick Reily.
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The classes at Eden Hall switched daily; that meant that you would have some classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and others on Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesday and Thursday all of the Ducks had History together, the only class that had all of them in the same room at the same time.
"Hey, guys." Averman said as he and Luis sat down in History, "If Dani comes up to you at some point and asks to take your picture... Just expect it." He finished, not really sure what else he would have said.
"Why?" Dwayne asked, pulling off his cowboy hat so that he wouldn't get in trouble when their teacher entered the room.
"Because she is going asking us for them." Luis said, "She said that Cami wanted them for something."
"Portraits probably." Max said, running his hands over his head and flinching a little. "Give her an excuse to draw or paint or something, and she will at the drop of a pin."
"You okay man?" Russ asked, catching Max's flinch.
"Fine, I'm fine." Max said, "I'm guess I'm still a little sore from that fall I had yesterday." He added, talking about when he fell after hockey practice.
"Did you fall that hard?" Guy asked, "I didn't look that bad." Max shrugged his shoulders, but didn't reply.
"Quiet everybody." A voice said from the doorway. Miss Dickinson, their teacher (and the best one in the school, in almost everyones opinion) had walked in the class, she was holding a massive stack of papers. "Guess what, everyone. I finally got to cleaning out my apartment, and I have no idea what to do with all of these."
"Recycle!" Dwayne said in his 'how-hard-was-that-to-think-of?' voice. Everyone laughed, "I was being serious."
"It's not that you weren't being serious," Connie said, "It's just that, the way you said it was funny."
"Oh." Dwayne said, still a little confused.
"Well, off of what I found in my apartment, and on to what we will be learning about today. Ourselves." Everyone muttered in confusion, "All history is is learning about our past and how is shapes what we are able to do now. Who sacrificed what to bring about the today and the now." Charlie raised his hand, "Yes Mr. Conway?"
"This is sort of off topic, but I figured since we were talking about ourselves, I could ask. Why is your first name 'Emily'?" Charlie asked.
"You have no idea how many times I was asked that when I was your age." Miss Dickinson said, "I claim that I got the name 'Emily' because my parents were evil psycho's who had a love of poetry and wanted to torture me." Charlie nodded, "But, back on the subject. Today I will be giving you your homework at the beginning of class." A class-wide groan, "It will be due next Tuesday, so you have a week to finish." Everyone seemed happier. "This also means that I expect all of them to be absolutely amazing."
"What exactly is this week-long homework assignment?" Goldberg asked.
"A poster. Not just any poster, but a poster that clearly represents who you are and what you have been through in your life." Some of the Ducks looked around to each other, "And that does not mean just hockey or other interests. It means what has changed about those interests and how have you changed because of them."
"Hawwwwwkkkkssssss!" Charlie and Goldberg said simultaneously in sing-song voices. Adam slapped both of them on the arm, and then lowered in his seat.
"I'll wait until next Tuesday." Miss Dickinson said with confusion. "Anyway, I don't just want to see hobbies, I want to see you, how have you changed outside of what you do. How has the person changed? And not just you, tell me about your families and lives have changed."
"Two more brothers and out of that crappy apartment in Chicago's South Side." Dean muttered, more to himself then anyone else. "What?" He added when he saw people staring at him.
"Yet again, I will wait until next week." Miss Dickinson said, "I have a feeling that I will enjoy looking at these, so don't let me down."
"Yes, ma'am." The class said in unison.
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"Max is the only one who will have anything different to put on that assignment in History." Adam said in the locker room as the team was getting ready for hockey practice.
"Why do you say that?" Max said, chuckling.
"Let's see," Julie began, "Romania, Italy, Germany, Japan, France, England... stop me when I'm getting close."
Max laughed as he said, "You left out America, Spain, and Mexico."
"Why you gotta hate on my people!" Luis spat out, once he noticed which countries had been left out, "I see how the minorities are treated here, I think I should just go back to Miami!"
Without turning around, everyone said something like, "See you" "Bye" "Whatever man" "Enjoy Miami" "Have fun with that". Luis turned back to his locker with a scowl on his face.
"What the hell happened to you?" Connie's voice broke through the good-byes. Everyone turned to look at her and noticed she was looking straight at Max, who had taken his shirt off and was showing massive scraps down one arm and his side.
"I told you, it happened when I fell." Max insisted, "I fell down concrete stairs, what did you expect?" Nobody replied, "I'm fine, so can we, please, just drop it? Thank you." He continued to get ready and they were soon ready to get on the ice.
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"Hey, Averman?" Charlie said as they made their way onto the ice, "How was it to get a kiss from Dani this morning?" Dean stopped dead, as did Averman and Adam.
"What kiss was this?" Averman said in a terrified voice.
"You know, that kiss. Luis, you were there." Charlie said. Dean looked from Luis to Averman to Charlie and back around.
"Anyone care to give me any clue as to what the HOLY HELL you are talking about?" Dean asked. Averman slunk away as Dean narrowed his eyes, and Adam made sure to never get a Dean's bad side when it came to his sister.
"It was just a tiny, un-meaningful peck on the cheek." Luis said, trying to come to Averman's aid, "It was when Dani was getting pictures of us."
"Tiny and un-meaningful?" Dean asked in a menacing voice.
"Very." Luis replied.
"Okay then." Dean said, patting Averman on the shoulder, "I think that it is okay if I let you live, for now. I just don't ever want to hear that again."
"Aye, aye." Averman said as he placed his hand to his forehead in a salute. Dean walked away and Averman put his hand down and glared at Charlie, "I hate you." He said before stalking onto the ice.
"This is why I am not asking Dani out." A voice said in a whisper, making Charlie turn. "Portman is way over-protective of her and would have me skinned alive and left to drown in my own blood!" Adam was staring at his best friend with huge saucer like eyes.
"We can fix that!" Charlie said, exasperated. "And if we can't, then we just won't tell Portman that you are dating her. It can't be that hard to keep a secret." Adam looked at him with an incredulous look on his face; he knew that Charlie have never kept a secret in his life.
"Just don't try to get us together. If anything, I should be able to decide the pace in which I want to get into a relationship." Adam said. "And don't tell Terry and Jesse to try to get us together." Adam added, reading the plot that was formulating in Charlie's mind.
"Oh, fine!" Charlie agreed, "Just promise me you will at least go somewhere with her, un-escorted and unchaperoned, once before she has to go back to Chicago when the school year is over."
"Whatever Charlie." Adam said as he turned and skated onto the ice. Charlie merely shook his head and sighed at his friend's stubbornness, and skated after the team.