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's mother is evil, so I played that up to the greatest extent that I could possibly muster myself into writing; I am glad that the date was a winner in your book. With both of them embarrassed around each other what will Chicago's Cupid do to get them back together? We'll see. (Hopefully that didn't sound as covered in cheese as I think it does!)

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Jeannette had gone, Dani was stuck without anyone from Chicago to keep her sane, and Dean wasn't faring all that great either. No one had brought up how Mr. Kal Jose Portman was doing or even if he was doing anything at all! No... no thinking about that, he couldn't die, he wasn't allowed! So, he wouldn't and that was that. Hopefully.

Without noticing where she was going, Dani ended up walking smack into a wall of an alleyway that lead to the quad or courtyard or whatever the hell they had at Eden Hall. "Ow." Dani mumbled as she rubbed her nose, "Stupid wall." The past few days had not been Dani's best, not since Tammy and Fulton's date had completely tanked thanks to the bitch/hypocrite of the century... Mrs. Duncan. Dani sighed her exasperated sigh that signaled her need to crawl into a hole and die, and turned towards the quad... or courtyard... or whatever.

Dani stopped at the edge of the alleyway as saw two girls and a boy sitting on benches and playing musical instruments. Band geeks, just like Dani. A short girl with wavy strawberry blond hair and average weight was playing a soprano saxophone. The other girl, average height and weight with long, straight brunette hair was playing a trumpet. The boy, who was tall and rather scrawny with black hair that didn't suit him, was playing a French horn.

Over in the distance, even though the noise made it completely obvious, the Ducks had made their way to a table. By the comments that were being made, Piper was with them and, more then likely, a little freaked out. "He is so cute." Dani heard the girl with strawberry blond hair say.

"Tarah? Who are you talking about?" The boy asked as he looked over to the flock at their table, "Oh, Portman probably." Dani sighed, she hoped not. Dean had enough squealing fan-girls as it was, he didn't need anymore.

"Nope, sorry Art." Enter Dani sigh of relief.

"Banks?" Art asked. Alarms were going off in Dani's head as she prayed that Tarah disagreed.

"Nuh-uh." Sigh again.

"Conway?" The other girl asked.

"He's dating Linda, Lucille. Of course not."

"Germaine?" Head shake no. "Oh, right. Cause even if you did, Connie would peck you to death." Head shake in agreement. "Um, Mendoza?"

"Oh, please say he's wrong!" Lucille exclaimed. Poor Luis, being with Mindy had had it's downsides. Dani had accidentally walked in on a date that the two of them were on and Mindy had been making google eyes with the guy serving an old women her coffee. She was practically having sex with the guy right then and there, and Luis knew it, he had that look in his eye. Poor Latino-who-picks-the-worst-girls.

"Not Luis, but he really isn't that bad."

"Then WHO?" Both Art and Lucille asked as their patience was getting thin.

"Well..." Dani's jaw dropped as she heard the name. What wonderful and juicy and gossipy information had just been passed to her. The only problem was whether she would be the first to rat Tarah out or not. Thinking it was better to go a different route, Dani opted to turn around an go back the way she came.

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Luis would have given anything at the current moment to be with the Ducks and not sitting and waiting while Mindy finished an English quiz that she had missed when the cheerleaders had gone to an exhibition the week before. He was so bored and if he didn't wait, she would flip and accuse him of cheating. Yeah, he was the cheater, sure, whatever you say.

His cell phone buzzed in his pants pocket and he monotonously dropped his hand and pulled it out. It was probably the Ducks calling to complain about 'Reily's sloppy seconds' as Mindy was often called. He looked to the face of the phone as his eyes lit up. "Ru!" He whispered. He opened the phone and raised it to his ear, "Ru?"

"Hola, hermano querido. ¿Usted me faltó?" (Spanish: Hello, dear brother. Did you miss me?)

"¡Sí! Por supuesto, Ru." (Spanish: Yes! Of course I did, Ru.) "So, how is the dance team shaping up this year?"

"We got a lot of great freshmen this year. I think that Dade County will go really far. At least I hope we will." Ru replied.

"Ruby, I think that all the credit of all future of success goes directly to their captain." Ruby laughed and thanked him, "I'll try to make it down to see you in person, but make sure Aunt Adora gets it all on tape."

"Of course I will, Luis."

"Thanks Ru. I want a full account of all..." Luis turned his head when someone tapped him on the shoulder. Mindy was standing with her arms crossed over her chest. "Ru," Luis sighed, here we go, "I have to go, I'll see you soon."

"Oh, okay. Bye." She was confused and a little hurt, causing Luis to hate his situation even more.

"Bye, Te quiero, Ru." (Spanish: I love you, Ru.) He closed his phone and sighed, "Hey Min, how was the quiz."

"Small talk?" Mindy asked snottily, "Who the hell was that? Some girl that you see from time to time? Just a 'friend'? Well?"

"That was my sister, Ruby." Luis replied as he tried to keep a cool head about things, man this girl could get annoying when she wanted to, "I told you about her."

"Yeah, sister, whatever."

"Now wait just un minuto," Luis spat, "what exactly are you accusing me of?" The look in Mindy's eyes was all he needed to know what she thought about him, "Mindy, I have always been totally and undeniably faithful. You on the other hand have shown that you would prefer to give Kip Dickerson a tongue bath and a lap dance."

"What!" Mindy screeched.

"You know what, do what you want." Luis shot back, "It's over, I really have way too much drama in my life without a hypocrite blaming me for cheating when I have never done so in my life." Luis turned on his heel and stalked away without looking back. This was a bad day, Luis prayed it would be over soon.

"LUIS!" A voice called causing him to turn to his left. It was Tarah Oldman, from his Creative Writing class, "Hey."

"Hey, Tarah."

"Look, I was wondering if you could do me a favor." She said. Luis nodded and shrugged, "Okay, Lucille and I are going to be in gone next Thursday and Friday for All-State tryouts. Seeing as you are the only remotely reliable person in Creative Writing, would you mind letting us borrow your notes on Friday night. I swear we will get them back to you first thing Monday morning."

"Sure."

"Thanks, Luis. You're a life-saver."

"Well, I couldn't let you fail Creative Writing. That class is set on the notes that we take." Tarah nodded in agreement and left with a wave. Luis walked in the other direction and soon found himself in a gaggle of Ducks in a tiny and enclosed space, just what he needed to cheer him up.

"Yo Luis!" Terry and Jesse were there as well. Piper was sitting with Julie, being the completely opposite, yet surprisingly cohesive, sisters that they were. "What's up man? You looked wiped out?"

"Oh, I'm fine." Luis replied sarcastically, not in the mood for banter, "I mean just because my life sucked before I broke up with Mindy and now it sucks even more doesn't mean that anything it wrong!" He sunk into a chair and placed his head in his hands and began to massage his temples. "A Bash Brother, I don't care which one, hit me as hard as you can." He mumbled.

Ken and Fulton looked to one another, weighing their options. "Um, where's Portman?" Ken asked looking around the group, "He was just here a second ago?"

"Probably ran off to be depressed like he's been doing lately. Anyone know why?" Max asked. No one replied because no one knew. No one but Julie, and she knew that Dean would tell them in his own time. "Well, I'm starting to think that..."

"Who has someone got a crush on?" Dean's voice rang though the room. He was questioning, truly trying to figure out the answer to what he was asking about. It wasn't going to take long.

"I never said anything about anyone having a crush!" Dani's voice yelled back as she got closer to the room. Well, maybe it would take just a teeny-tiny bit longer then it normally might. Dani walked into their room and slammed to door open, "So just leave me alone!"

"Dan. Are you kidding me?" Dean asked, "Who?" Dani shook her head in protest, but Dean knew what to do. He flicked his eyes from one teammate to the other, back to Dani in between each one. If her left eye twitched a little, he had just hit the bullseye. Every time her looked back to her he could tell that she was bitting her lip a little harder. Finally he looked back to her and... twitch, twitch, "GOLDIE! Someone has a crush on Goldberg?"

This was priceless. Dani looked ready to hit someone, Dean was relishing in his success, all of the Ducks were looking from them to Goldberg, who was caught halfway in lifting a slice of pizza to his mouth, frozen in shock, flicking his eyes around at the people surrounding him. "I never said that." Dani replied hopelessly.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, means 'yes' in Dani-world." Max said as he slapped palms with Dean. Dani narrowed her eye and smacked them both as hard as she could on the back of the head.

"Go to hell, I hate you two." Dani replied before leaving the room.

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Dani sat against the doorway of her class room, writing in a huge notebook. The story she was writing was inspired by a set of pictures that Cami had drawn that involved a seal wearing a beanie with a propeller on top. Dani was never sure were some of Cami's pictures had come from.

"Hi." A voice said, pulling her out of her daze. She looked up and saw Adam, smiling a small smile. Man, he looked really hot at the moment, in more then one meaning of the word. He was sweating and he was wearing a short sleeved shirt and jeans. Very nice looking jeans from were Dani was... Bad Dani!

"Oh, hi." Dani replied as she stood up, "What's up?"

"Nothing really. You?" Adam shook his head, "Oh, come on, you have nothing to say about anything?"

"Why? You don't." Adam teased.

"Ha ha." Dani replied, "All I know is that I think that Dean Buckley is trying to kill Tommy, Tammy, me, and our tutor." Adam raised his eyebrows in question, "The heat in that room is unable to turn off and the A/C can't turn on," She replied, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb, "Or so he says."

"Ah, I see." Adam replied as Dani bent down to pick up her notebook. When she came back up they, in some way, ended up extremely close. Adam couldn't help but notice that Dani had gorgeous eyes. "I... I..." Adam tried to speak, but couldn't get the words out before he leaned over and kissed her. Unfortunately, it didn't last very long, he pulled away, "Dani, I'm sorry, I..." He began to turn but Dani grabbed his arm.

"I hate when you do that." Dani mumbled as she looked into his eyes, noticing the confusion at her statement. Dani pulled him back down to her and kissed him again. Once he lost his confusion, Adam kissed her back and put his hands around her waist. Her hands had rested on his arms and he could feel her long nails on his skin. Dani pulled away and smiled, "Not bad, but then again, I already knew that."

"Dani, I don't think that we..." Dani cut him off by placing another small kiss on his lips.

"Adam, I can see that this is the trouble of the ever popular misconception that my brother runs my life. He doesn't, nor does he have much say in it at all. So stop worrying so much." She kissed him again and pulled back with her hands tracing up his arms, "So, I can also see that you aren't going to say anything. So. Do you want to go out. With me. On Saturday. Alone. On a date."

"Sure." Adam replied, shocked by her request, "That's be great."

"Cool." Dani said as she untangled herself from Adam's arms, "See you then." She waved and left. Adam was ready to fly, this was the greatest day of his life.