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'm glad you liked the last chapter. I agree, Fulton may be some sort of animal, but he loves Tammy and she loves him. So he's allowed to be. I just am not quite sure where I got the 'blowfish' part from. I have to remember what I was thinking when I was writing that part. Thanks!

THANK YOU to mickEmousina.

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Scooter, along with the rest of the Varsity Boys Basketball team, was making his way to the gym for conditioning and weight lifting. Normally, they would have been in the gym and hour ago, but the Girl's Basketball coaches had set up a sort of try-out/initiation kind of thing at the request of Coach Willis, the gym teacher and Volleyball coach. Scooter knew that it was for Piper, because the girl was insanely good and deserved to be on the team. However his coach, Jeremy Sutton, didn't agree. He thought that the only good thing about the Girl's basketball program at Eden Hall was one of the Coaches, Jolene Ackles.

Once they entered the Gym, Coach Sutton's eyes gleamed as he saw Jolene standing just outside the girl's dressing room, "Ah, Jojo." He said.

"Don't call me that, Sutton." She spat back. It was common knowledge to anyone who cared to listen that he had a crush on her, and that she hated his guts and wished him to the deepest depths of Hell. Coach Sutton's eyes gleamed until his attention was directed to the other Girl's coach, Aidan Thompson. He sighed heavily through his nose as he watched the much better looking man read what looked like a list of some sort.

"Jolene." He said as he walked up behind her. He gave her the list and muttered something that no one but Jolene could understand. She nodded and indicated that she agreed with him on something. This made Coach Sutton more exasperated then he already was.

"Are you two going to give us the court, or are we going to have to beg?" He asked. Scooter held in a laugh and he knew that his teammates were doing so as well. All of them could see him begging her for something.

"Just a minute." Jolene replied, "The girls are going to be out soon."

"Girls? I thought that it was just one?"

"It was. But we also wanted Harri to come and see her. And it just happens that she dragged someone along. So now we have two more. Hopefully." Aidan answered. "I can't believe we missed that one of them was already here." He mumbled as Jolene nodded. But Sutton took no notice of his last comment.

"Harri?"

"Harrietta Liston, the captain." Scooter said. He internally rolled his eyes, anyone with half a brain knew that she preferred to be called Harri, it was her grandfather's name after all, and he had died when she was only three.

"So, just who do these two young ladies happen to be?"

"Okay, wait a minute. Let me get this straight." It was Harri coming out of the girl's locker room. "Perfect grades, great at basketball, a fantastic goalie, and you're dating that!" She had finished next to her coaches and she was pointing at Scooter, "Am I allowed to hate you?" Julie walked passed her and shrugged her shoulders as if to say 'if you must'. "Good, I just had to make sure."

"What are you doing here?" Scooter asked her.

"Piper dragged me to help before hand." Julie answered, "And they showed up while I was helping."

"Oh, you love me for it." Piper said as she walked up behind her and threw her a basketball. Julie did a kind of shrug and nod before she threw the basketball in the direction of the hoop. All of the boys and their coach gaped when the ball when directly in the hoop with a swish. Piper smiled smugly and Julie looked back at the bouncing ball and shrugged.

"Thank you, Ladies." Aidan replied with one of his eyebrows raised and a half smile. Piper and Julie both nodded and left the gym. Before they were completely out of the door they heard one of the guys on the team ask Scooter if he was allowed to date Julie if they ever broke up. Scooter said nothing, but gave his answer with an elbow to his teammate's ribs.

"Ah, Julie." Piper said, "You're irresistible."

Julie smiled, "Thank you, thank you. Autographs after the show." Piper laughed, "Pi, when is mom going to be here?"

"In about... Oh..." She checked her watch, "Ten minutes." Julie nodded, "So, are you coming over to our place?"

"Sure."

"Cool." Piper paused for a moment, "Hey, Julie -something I didn't realize until a couple of days ago- Adam is my across-the-street neighbor. I'm going to have to ask him why people were staring at us from their living room windows when we were moving in."

"Adam has said it time and time again, rich people are nosy." Piper laughed, "But, Pi, you haven't told me what you're going to wear for the costume day."

Piper laughed, "You know, Adam is right." Julie furrowed her eyebrows. Piper smiled, "Rich people are nosy!" Piper ran off towards the gate as Julie took in the fact that her sister had just called her nosy.

"Piper!" Julie exclaimed as she ran after her sister.

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Dani sighed as she sat on her bed reading an article on her mother's skating career on her computer. Nothing too informative was in that particular article; at least, nothing she didn't know already. Dani sighed and rolled her eyes, clicking the X in the top, right hand corner of the window. She was about to turn off the computer all together until a IM popped up.

$$ITALIANmoney- Sup cousin?

NOTsweet&cute- Hi, Ash. How is everybody?

$$ITALIANmoney- Not bad, but mom and dad are going on vacation for Christmas and we won't be able to see you. Sal and I have to go visit the demons in Wichita.

NOTsweet&cute- Don't call your grandparents demons. It's not nice.

$$ITALIANmoney- It may not be nice, but it sure as hell is true. Plus, we have to see Erin and Harold.

NOTsweet &cute- Who?

$$ITALIANmoney- OH, right. You never met them. They're mom's brother and sister-in-law. They have the most annoying daughter with the most annoying friends.

NOTsweet&cute- Speak your pain to me.

$$ITALIANmoney- Funny. She's uber preppy and has owned three purses every six months since she was 4.

NOTsweet&cute- :shutter: What's her name.

$$ITALIANmoney- Glory... Well, actually it's Gloria, but she simply must be called Glory. Her creepy friend has a crush on me!

NOTsweet&cute- I'm sorry. Maybe I can set you up with a cute Minnesota girl. That way, you can blow her off nicely.

$$ITALIANmoney- Not going to happen. I've already blown her off as nicely as possible. Anyways, I have a girlfriend, so no need.

NOTsweet&cute- Ash... I need details! You know me, you can't just stop there!

$$ITALIANmoney- Like?

NOTsweet&cute- Like name, age, where does she live, how did you meet? Come on!

$$ITALIANmoney- Name: Silver Fischer. Age: 19. Lives in Beverly. Met because she is a big fan of The Rink and Morgan Park in general.

NOTsweet&cute- So you can basically thank Mom for getting you two together.

$$ITALIANmoney- Just don't tell her I said that.

NOTsweet&cute- Whatever. Another question: You're 20, so why do you have to visit them if you don't want to?

$$ITALIANmoney- Mom wants me to.

NOTsweet&cute- Mama's boy.

$$ITALIANmoney- Shut up. By the way, the annoying 13 year old wanted me to tell you that he will be cheering you on, as will I.

NOTsweet&cute- Don't call Sal annoying, we both know worse. But thank you.

$$ITALIANmoney- I'll try to get out there at some point.

NOTsweet&cute- Thanks Ash. Maybe you can bring Silver.

$$ITALIANmoney- I'll try. She loves to travel. I run it by her and then we can see when we both have free time.

NOTsweet&cute- I have to go, homework and practice you know.

$$ITALIANmoney- Yeah, I do. I'll talk to you later. Bye, babe.

NOTsweet&cute- Don't call me babe. Buh-bye.

Dani logged off of the conversation and turned off her computer. She sighed as she pushed down the top of her laptop. Needing something to do, she walked down to the kitchen and turned on the television before pulling out ingredients that she needed to make brownies. She was sure that Dean would appreciate them, he was a brownie freak.

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The brownies were cooking in the oven and all Dani could do was wait. She washed her hands and pulled out a rag to wipe off the counter tops. After putting all of the ingredients in their proper place she began to clean; that was, until a particular story on the news got her attention.

"Carson City entrepreneur, Hai-Chao Li, is offering a $10,000 dollar reward for the capture of this man." A police sketch of a white man with a square jaw, black hair, a scraggly beard, a large nose, beady eyes, and a gray hoodie popped on to the screen next to the female reporter. "His name is Jackson Witt, and he his being charged on the beating and robbery of Li's daughter Thalia, and her fiancé, Jamison Banks, of Edina, Minnesota, in Las Vegas, at 12:30 yesterday morning."

"Oh, crap." Dani said, deadpanned. She raced over the to table, where she had sat her cellphone. The grabbed it harshly and dialed Adam's cellphone number at top speed, "Come on. Come on; pick up, Adam." She whispered.

"Hello?" Adam's voice said through the phone. Dani heaved a sigh of relief.

"Adam, it's Dani."

"Oh, hey."

"Are you near a t.v. set?" Dani asked, "It's really important."

"Yes."

"Good, flip to channel 3."

"Um, okay. Hold on a second." Adam pulled the phone away, "Mom, dad, can I go to channel 3? Thanks." He took the remote that his mother had passed him and pressed the buttons, "So, what is this... about." He finished just as the channel changed. Dani turned her attention back to the television screen.

"Mr. Li, what happened." A reporter asked.

"From what I been told by the police, Mr. Witt broke into my daughter's apartment while she and her fiancé were having dinner together. He beat them with an unloaded gun that was found at the scene and stole a significant amount of money and jewelery, including her engagement ring."

"Do you know how your daughter and her fiancé are doing?"

"Thalia is much better off." Mr. Li replied. "She has a few broken bones, some cuts and scraps, and a concussion." He stopped for a moment to stop from crying, "But Jamie has not woken up just yet. The doctors say that he had taken the most of the beating." He sniffled.

"Adam, I'm so sorry." Dani whispered into the phone.

"Thank you for calling." Adam replied.

"Your welcome." Dani said. She and Adam hung up their phones and she sighed. She felt very sorry for Adam, and his parents had been in the room and watched it along with him. And what about Monica? Adam told her that she was so excited when Jamie came to visit; she was going to be heartbroken. All they could to was hope, but maybe this would get Mr. Banks off of his lazy butt and try to reconcile with Jamie.