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- In awe? Seriously? When I write any abuse scenes, I can tend to get a little bit deep into it. Hopefully the awe is because it was good and it didn't disgust you. As for patenting something, if you must then you must. I'm glad that you liked all of the Tammy/Fulton-ness.
mickEmousina- Poor Fulton is right, his dad is a psycho, how could you not want to punch the guy? Every once and a while Fulton needs to make fun of Dean, it brings the latter down a few notches and gives smilies and bubbly feelings.
Lilmonkey1507- Julie and Portman are a great couple, their so different yet so similar. I know what you mean about the abuse happening all the time, the same thing happened with a couple of people I know, it really is a sad situation, but no one really knows what it's like unless they live it. I'm glad that you think that it's getting better, I do try to do that.
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Once again, Greg Goldberg was stuck alone, doing homework... it was boring to say the least. Everyone else had something to do to put it off or were finished, but did he? Nope. Deciding he needed air, Goldberg quietly and quickly excused himself from said homework and raced out the door.
As he turned the corner, he was pleasantly surprised to see no one around. This would give him a chance to think about thing. Around people, he was loud and would make joking comments or attempt to keep himself from becoming the butt of a joke. He walked along, not really thinking anything; that was until he realized that he had "Walk Like An Egyptian" stuck in his head. "Grr." He groaned.
"Well, I'd say that you make a rather convincing tiger." A voice said behind him, causing him to jump, "Hi, Greg."
"Tarah, hey." He replied once he knew who he was talking to, "How you doing?"
He turned towards her as she nodded, "Good. But can I ask you a question?"
"Shoot."
Tarah suddenly looked uncomfortable, "I was just wondering if you wanted to... Well, what I was wondering was... Oy, I suck at this." She took a deep breath and tried again, "I was wondering if you would like to have lunch with me on Sunday night? I'll pay."
Goldberg smiled slightly, "Really?" Tarah nodded shyly, "I'd love to, but I can eat a lot, so I'll not take you up on the paying for."
Tarah laughed, "Trust me, I've never met a girl that could eat more then me."
"Really?" Tarah nodded, "But you're so tiny."
Tarah shook her head, "Nope, I'm normal for my height category. I'll make you a deal, I pay for your half and you pay for mine and then we can compare."
"Works for me."
"I'll see you at 1:30 on Saturday then."
"Cool."
"Bye." She said, blushing slightly.
"I'll see you then."
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Dani stood just inside the door of the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Minneapolis waiting for a certain guest that she wanted to see. She was wearing a worn trench coat that had once been her Aunt Mickie's, sunglasses, and she had her iPod with her so to an unknowing person, it may seem like she was up to no good, but this was far from it; what Dani wanted was an understanding. Now all she had to do was wait, but she wasn't sure for how... Oh, there he was.
The man, only about 18 or 19, was wearing sunglasses and a hat, but she knew that it was him. He walked over to the elevator and stepped in, not knowing that Dani was following him, and pressed the button to the top floor. Nothing really happened as they rode the elevator, Dani leaned against the metal back wall while the man twitched around a a lot. 'He must be claustrophobic.' Dani thought, 'Now that I think about it, he didn't look to happy about getting on a elevator, but 17 floors is a lot to go up.' Once the elevator bell dinged, signaling the floor, the man rushed out of the elevator at top speed and Dani stepped out just into to see the room he rushed into.
Pterodactyls flew around her her stomach as she pulled her earphones out of her ears and raised her hand to the door and knocked. Breathing in deeply, she heard the lock click and the door opened to reveal a somewhat short, but very pretty, girl with stick straight blonde hair and icy blue eyes, "Yes?" She asked.
"Gala, right?" Dani asked.
"Yes."
Dani stuck out her hand, "I'm Dani. Well, Danielle. Danielle Portman." Gala's limpid blue eye widened and Dani pulled her hand back down, "I know that's it's really weird that I'm here, but I just wanted to talk to you." Gala nodded, still a little scared, "You obviously know about all of the media coverage of the 'rivalry' or what ever it is between us, and I just wanted to say that ridiculous stuff like that can get blown out of proportion. I have no problem with you and I'm sorry about all of the idiot stuff that people are saying."
Gala nodded, "Thank you. My father said that everyone was saying that because you and everyone here thought that you were better then me and we needed to shut you all up."
"Did he now? That isn't the case, trust me. It's just idiot people who are trying to start feuds." Gala nodded, " And if that's really what your father thought, then why are you here two months early?"
Gala swallowed, "He thought that I should get a feel for the American Ice."
"Two months early?" Dani asked incredulously. Gala nodded, "And what, exactly, did he have planned for you to do when you aren't practicing?"
"Nothing really."
"Well that must get boring."
"Gala?" Gunnar asked from the bathroom. He asked her a question in Icelandic, so Dani had no idea what he was saying, but it seem to irritate Gala as she replied, in Icelandic as well, with an exasperated expression on her face.
She sighed, "Brothers... They are so annoying."
"I have four." Dani replied, causing Gala's eyes to widen once again and her jaw to drop, "So I know your pain."
"Four?"
Dani nodded, "One older, one twin, and two younger. At least all you have is an older brother, and he's what? 18?"
"19." Gala corrected, "He's two years older the me."
"Gala!" Gunnar's voice said harshly as he moved across the penthouse suite, "Who is at the d... oh, hello."
Gala rolled her eyes, "Gunnar, this is Danielle Portman." Gunnar raised an eyebrow in question and Gala nodded exasperatedly.
"But, if you don't mind, I prefer to be called 'Dani'. Not only does it take less time, it can confuse people at times and I like doing that."
"Why?" Gala asked.
"I don't know really, I just do." She shrugged, "If you two ever get bored of sitting around 7/8 of the time, I won't be far." She pulled out a tiny strip of paper for her back pocket, "Call me, we wouldn't want you to hate your experience here."
Gala smiled, but Gunnar looked skeptical, "Why are you being so nice?" He asked, "You didn't act this way in all of your news programs."
Dani choked back a rude retort in favor of something that would keep her from causing what she wanted to prevent, "That wasn't me, that was the reporters trying to cause confrontation. We're both looking towards the same goal as each other and hundreds of other people on the planet, so why should be just be worried about each other? I just want an understanding so that we don't hate each other because some reporters want a good story."
"Yes, Gunnar." Gala said, "No need to be rude."
"I'll see you two around. Try not to get too bored."
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Glad to be back to her building and even more glad to not find a special present from a certain someone, Dani pulled off her jacket and pulled out a bowl and a package of instant chicken soup. As she placed the soup mix package in the bowl and placed a pot of water on the stove, she thought. Gunnar didn't seem to think that she really wanted to make peace, but he had a reason. Plus, if he had figured out that she was the sister of a USA Jr. Goodwill Games player then any attempt would be futile no matter what.
The water on the stove bubbled and Dani poured the mix into it as she sighed in exasperation. God the media could get annoying sometimes! Dani placed her head in her hands but looked up the minute she heard snow crunching under someone's shoes outside.
Dani slowly inched towards the door as a knock came. She wasn't quite sure if she wanted to open it or not, "Dan? You there?" Dani heaved a sigh of relief as she pulled open the door. Standing there was a tall and somewhat scrawny man with sandy hair and hazel eyes; all of his appearance, which was mostly from his mother, melded together to make a rather attractive young man.
"Ash?" Dani asked as she hugged her cousin, "What are you doing here? I thought you had to go visit Brooke's family in Kansas." She herded him in and closed the door.
Ash nodded, "Yeah, mom did want me to, but I wanted to come see you first. I figured it would be on the way, even if I did have to go a little north. Besides, I'm not getting to Wichita for another week."
"What about Silver?"
"She couldn't come." Ash said sadly, "Her mom and dad don't really like me and she had school so I wasn't going to give them another reason to be pissed at me."
"Why don't they like you?"
"I don't know."
"Lair." Dani said, noticing how quickly Ash had responded, "What's wrong?"
"Silver's parents had hope that she would get together with this guy that's a friend of theirs son." Ash replied, spilling because he knew that Dani had him in a corner, "He's old money, pretty big old money. They thought that I wasn't good enough because I didn't have all of the cars, real estate, and lavish jewels. I'm too blue collar apparently."
Dani laughed sourly, "I know a few people like that here, luckily I'm around the nice kind. All of the Ducks are pretty awesome." Ash nodded, "I'd tell you where you could find Dean if you had come on a week day, but I'm not sure where he is."
"That's okay, how about we just cruise around." He replied, "I have a week to see Dean and I haven't spent any time with you since I left for collage."
"Before your Freshmen year." Dani replied bitterly.
"Oh, come on cugino piccolo." (Italian: little cousin), "I know that I've been really preoccupied, but I do have things to do."
Dani sighed, "Yeah, I know."
"So, what should we do?" Ash asked.
"I don't know."
"Then lets just ride around and see where the wind takes us."
"As long as we get back in time so that my coach doesn't kill me, I'll be happy." Ash smiled and nodded, pulling the door open, "I didn't know that I had my own butler."
"Whatever, lets go."