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- Thank you. I am glad that you liked what happened with Dani, Connie, and Julie. I do try, glad it's working. Fulton will be getting a move on soon, so thanks for the encouragement. I hope you like what happens next!
Thoughtless Drumming- I am ecstatic that you liked what happened with the girls at the table, and when they met up with McGill and Larson. I hope that I didn't go too overboard, I just don't like them much (that's why I made them friends with Cole's little brother).
BrokenAngle1753- Many thanks!
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"Hi mom!" Dani called. Walking into the kitchen and see her mother at 5:30 in the morning wasn't normal, "Why are you up so early?" Dani went to the refrigerator and pulled out eggs and green and red hot peppers, "Eggs?"
"Hello. Couldn't sleep. Yes."
"Mrs. Portman?" A voice asked as the body attached descended the stairs. "What the heck are you doing up this early?" Tammy and Tommy walked up the the mother/daughter pair, "You're allowed to sleep in a little." Tammy added as she walked to the cupboard and pulled out plates and forks. "Are you okay? You look like you're a cat that got caught in the thunderstorm of all thunderstorms."
"Just a little upset is all."
"At whom, mom?" Dani asked as she cracked in egg on the side of the bowl she was using to mix the eggs with the peppers. Little did she know that she gave her mother a very evil and demented idea as she did this. But, hey, mothers can have thoughts of smashing peoples heads like eggs if they want to.
"The general public." She replied. "And work." Dani took notice of the stack of papers that her mother had to fill out and sign before sending them back to Jeannette, but there was also a familiar blue folder.
"May I?" Dani asked, indicating the folder. Her mother shook her head, and Dani reached for it. When she opened it, Dani's eyes grew to the size of two saucers, each! "Mom?" Hmm. "Did Cami draw these?" Nod. "Why would she draw maternity clothes and why would you have the drawings." Laugh. "What? I'm serious!"
"Dani, sweetie, it's not for me." Dani heaved a huge sigh of relief. "It's for Jeannette."
"Jeannette? I thought that Alan broke off the engagement four months ago." Another nod, "But that means she had to be at least four months along, unless there is something that I am unaware of."
"No, there isn't. And just so you know, she's five months along, and she keeps calling me and complaining that she is fat. That girl never grew up."
"Neither of you did." Dani replied, "Well, you didn't. If you were never married to dad you'd starve or skive off of grandpa. Our poor Alyssa Gianna." She added as she placed the peppers in the eggs. "Well, you called me by my middle name two days ago, so I called you by yours."
"I hate you two." Tammy said bluntly. "You have this great mother/daughter relationship. If I ever said some of the things that you two say to each other to my mom, my butt would be so raw I wouldn't be able to skate for a week. And, your relationship doesn't rest on how well you skate and what rank you are in the country or the world. Can you adopt me, Mrs. Portman?" Tammy said, turning with her hands clasped together in begging.
"I smell eggs!" The only other female voice in the building called down the stairs. Only one thing was different then normal, the deep south Alabama accent that was normally only scarcely noticeable, was now at the forefront of what was heard. "Yum!" Gia exclaimed as she walked over to the stove in which Dani was cooking.
"You are so Southern this morning. Getting ready for your visit to Dale's parents on Saturday?" Gia nodded as she poked at the eggs, attempting to grab some. Dani slapped her hand away. "They hate it when you talk all southern like." Dani said in a very good imitation of Gia's accent. "Mom," She said normally when a thought hit her, "What are you going to do about Jeannette and maternity leave?"
"I'm going up over Thanksgiving weekend so that I can spend it with your dad. I'll take over from there. I figure you three can keep yourselves out of trouble until I bring everyone back in December."
"I can, but when Dean finds out that everyone is coming down, he's going to freak!" Dani replied.
"Why?" Tommy asked. "Does he not want your family to come or something?" Then the obvious hit him, "Wait a minute, the Olympics are in February."
"We know that, but I have to practice so my dad and brothers and grandfather and uncles are going to come here for Christmas. Me not leaving also means that Doe, Leah, and Eve are coming back as well."
"Okay, but why Thanksgiving?" Gia asked.
"My parents met on Thanksgiving. It's tradition that they spend it together, alone. My brothers and I always have Thanksgiving brunch with them and our grandfather and uncles and cousins. Then for dinner, the rest of the family goes over to my grandpa's while dad makes her something special. It's very cute." Dani concluded.
"Thank you, Danielle."
"Your welcome, mom." Dani said as she poured the pepper riddled eggs on a plate, "Dig in."
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"Portman?" Fulton asked. He sat up when the light from Dean's bedside table shined in his eyes. "What are you doing up at 6:15 in the morning?" He added looking at the clock that was blinking a gigantic, red 6:15 next to his head.
"Trying to figure out what pictures to use for that History project that I should have been working on like a good little child." Dean replied, and he wasn't being sarcastic, he was genuine! When did this side of Dean Portman come into being? Fulton got out of bed and tried to look at the pictures over Dean's shoulder. "Here." Dean said, throwing a few pictures down to the foot of his bed. "I don't have any deadly secrets hidden in them or anything."
Fulton nodded and began to look at Dean's pictures. He so frequently stopped and asked who people were that Dean stopped what he was doing and began to explain. "Wait a second, are all those of you and Dani?" Fulton asked. He was inquiring about several photos in which the occupants were sitting back to back with their legs to their chests, facing the camera.
"Yeah, that picture is kind of like our thing. Every summer since we were three we have taken the exact same picture." Dean said.
"I can tell." Fulton said, looking at all of the 'same' pictures. "How old were you here?" He asked, pointing to one of the earlier pictures.
"Five." Dean said as he looked at the picture.
"And why are you not smiling for a two year period?" Fulton said, taking in the details of the pictures. He was a great guy, but he payed way to much attention to all of the details of Dean's pictures, and it was getting annoying.
"I had braces." Dean mumbled. "I never smiled with my lips open when I was a kid, and I didn't smile at all when I had them. I got them off about a month before I met you guys." He hated braces with a passion, and now Caleb had to get them, HA! "They were about as bad as the retainer that Alec had to wear."
"Does you whole family have teeth problems or something?" Fulton asked.
"No, I don't think so. Alec had a retainer, I had braces, Caleb has to have braces, and Dani spoke with a lisp when she was little, but I don't think that Felix has any problems. But, then again, he's only two." Dean replied.
"Who are they?" Fulton asked, point to two pictures. One was of a man and a little girl and the other was of two boys and a man and a women.
"That," Dean said, pointing to the one with four people, "is Uncle Vito, my mom's oldest brother. His wife, Brooke, and sons, Sal and Ash, short for Ashley. Uncle Vito was a big fan of "Gone with the Wind", that was how Ash got his name. "Gone with the Wind" was how he and Brooke met, actually." Fulton looked over to him confused, "He was friends with Brooke's collage roommate. She knew what they had in common." Fulton shrugged, "And that is Uncle Dante, younger then Uncle Vito, older then mom. That's Sage, my cousin. Her mom died when she was six months old."
"She's cute." Fulton said.
"If she could hear you, she would probably be embarrassed." Dean said. "She's deaf, but she has gotten freakishly good at reading lips. You have to stand in front over her to talk to her. Everyone in my family knows sign-language." Fulton nodded, "She is a big believer in 'men can do what women can do and women can do what men can do', except giving birth. Sage is very vocal, even if she can't talk that well."
"Why?" Fulton asked.
"Uncle Dante is a nurse. Sage hates when men are discriminated against for having female-dominated jobs. She's a pretty good fighter too." Dean told him as he pulled out a picture of Sage in boxing paraphernalia, with a mouth piece in her mouth.
"Why does she need to be?"
"She knows that people with disabilities are much more likely to be targeted for an attack of some kind. So she figured if she would live with being deaf, she wanted kick boxing classes. Which was great, because Dani wanted them too." Dean said before looking over to the clock, "It's seven, we should get ready."
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Fast forward. It was 6:00 at night as the Ducks began to leave Edan Hall for the weekend. "So, guys, don't forget. I want to come and meet Jamie's friends with me in half an hour." Adam said as he swung his bag over his shoulder.
"You just want us to be there so that you won't be alone." Dean teased, "That 'bring an open mind' comment scared you, didn't it? Admit it." Fulton and Max nodded in agreement with Dean. Adam looked incredulous at the ridiculousness of this statement.
"It did not!" Adam insisted, "The text message said that I could bring you guys if I wanted to." Nobody believed him, "You guys are hopeless. Hey, Dani." He called down that hall
"Hey, guys." Dani said as she came up to them.
"Dani?" Fulton asked, "Did you really have a lisp when you were little." Dani's eyes widened as she looked from Fulton to her brother to everyone else. She did the only thing she could think of, hit Dean repeatedly over the head with her half empty water bottle.
"Ow, Dan, what are you doing?" Dean asked as she hit him.
"You told him about that?" Dani asked acrimoniously. She was about go on when Dean reminded her that when she got really angry, the lisp came back, "I know, moron! Excuse me!" She walked away and slammed the door behind her.
"Should I not have said that?" Fulton asked. Dean shook his head as he rubbed it to make the pain go away.
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6:15. "Hi, Mrs. Conway." Adam said as he walked into Mickey's. "Could I have a cheeseburger and fries?" He asked.
"Coming up Adam." She replied. "What are you doing here? Is anyone else coming?" She asked while his food was being made.
"I don't know, I think everyone was planing on coming. I was actually waiting for Jamie to get here."
"Jamie? Your brother? The one that went to Nevada after yelling at your dad 'I hate you, I quit this family. I hope Adam has better luck with you loonies then I did'. That Jamie?" Adam nodded hesitantly. He had tried to forget that conversation between his father and his brother. To Adam's knowledge, Jamie was staying at a hotel and had yet to see his parents again. "Here you go." She said when she put his plate down in front of him.
Before he could even eat, a hand reached out and grabbed several of his fries. "Hey, little man." Adam turned and saw his brother eating his fries. "How you doing?" He asked.
"Hi, Jamie." Adam said, "I see you never learned about eating off of your own plate." Jamie laughed sarcastically. "Jamie, you remember Mrs. Conway, Charlie's mom?"
"Oh, yeah. Nice to see you again." Jamie said, smiling. It was obvious that she was in pure shock at his change. Before she could say anything, four people came into the diner. They were arguing until Jamie whistled shrilly. "Yo! Anything I can help you with?" There were three girls and one boy. Two of the girls were Asian in some way, the other was black. The boy was kind of hard to figure out.
"Dragon, man," The boy who was probably a year or so older then Jamie, "Your girlfriend over here changed my CD! This can not happen." Dragon? Well, it explains the tattoo, but that was about it. More questions were opened.
The black girl spoke, "She only changed it because your music is crap, Demon." The Asian girls agreed with her, that narrowed down who was Jamie's girlfriend. Now all Adam had to do was wait.
"Can it, Petals!"
"You can't talk to my girl that way!" The shorter of the other girls said. Her girl? Probably girlfriend by the way they had there fingers laced together. That only left the taller of the Asian girls. She was wearing a black leather corset with jeans and black boots. Her raven hair was liberally streaked with red.
"Don't fight in front of the child!" Jamie said pointing towards Adam. Child? Adam looked back at his brother sourly, then went back to his cheeseburger. "Demon, Angel, Petals, Firecracker. I would like you to meet my little brother, Adam." As he shook their hands, Adam noticed that the two girlfriends had matching rings on their fingers that would normally play home to a wedding band. How sweet. "Adam, I would like you to met my friends." Jamie said. He indicated the only other male, "Robert Kinsley, better known as 'Demon'." Adam nodded. 'Demon' was about the same height as Jamie, although he was skinnier, with a shaved head and a demon creature tattooed on the back of his forearm, looking like it was trying to claw out of his arm. He wore blue jeans and a black short sleeved tee-shirt.
"Ava Langston." The black girl introduced herself, "AKA, Petals." She was wearing a black skirt that was cut on a bias and a tight dark green halter top. She had flowers and petals tattooed from her right shoulder down to her hip. Her hair was dark brown with caramel highlights.
"Cara, Cara Li. Angel. It's nice to meet you." She had a white tub top under another top made of black mesh, blue jeans, and flip flops. All over her back and stomach she had angel wings tattooed, and she had a halo on the back of her neck. She was wearing her hair up to show it off.
"And that leaves me." The other girl, his brother's girlfriend, said, "Thalia Li."
"Firecracker?" Adam said, using the process of elimination and the fact that Thalia had a tattoo of a firecracker going of in someone's face on her left bicep. "Why did you all tattoo your nicknames on yourselves?"
"Because we could, little man." Jamie said, "So were are the Ducks?"
"We have arrived!" Charlie's voice cut through the group of collage students surrounding Adam. "Hey, Banksie."
"Man! That is not Jamie!" All of the Ducks got out of the way as Terry and Jesse walked over next to Charlie, completely shell-shocked, "He got so... so... so cool! What happened to the preppy in a button-up and slacks?" Jesse said as he stared at Jamie. "Hello, who are you?" He asked.
"Guys, this is Demon, Angel, Petals, and Firecracker." Adam said. "Apparently Jamie is now 'Dragon', you're going to have to explain to me how you got that nickname, you know that."
"Whatever, I'll tell you tomorrow when we crash your movie marathon." All the Ducks widened their eyes or smiled, "What? I may not be on the best terms with mom and dad, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to spend time with my little brother."
"Yeah, sure." Adam said, "And you want to show up before mom and dad leave for dinner and see the looks of shock on their faces when they see that their bad child really has gone bad."
"Exactly!" Adan shrugged and went back to his fries.