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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Bad Best Friend- Yes, Dani did put Adam in his place, she's just that kind of girl. As for the dialogue between Gala, Gunnar, and Dani, I imagined that to be slightly awkward at first and to start off slowly. In my head it didn't seem that interesting... Plus it was three in the morning and if I didn't get to bed, my grandmother was going to throttle me and I wanted to get that chapter up. I can see why you would want me to write that part and I'm sorry that I didn't for you, but it didn't seem to go with everything else.
Thank yous need to be extended to PrincessH and Tinkerbell821.
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Saturday. Saturday. Saturday! It was the day that all of the Ducks had been waiting for. Not only did this day mean that they got off of school until January 4th, but all of them were excited for Goldberg's lunch date and they wouldn't get off of his back about wanted to know all of the details afterwards, it was as if they all transformed into 12 year old girls.
Currently everyone, except Goldberg, obviously, was sitting in the Mall of America food court and waiting for Piper, who was late due to having a prior engagement, to show up. "I can't believe that Goldberg actually has a date today." Luis said for the millionth time that week.
Julie and Connie simultaneously rolled their eyes, "God, you guys are worse then girls when it comes to gossip." Julie exclaimed.
"Yeah, so chill." Connie added, completely exasperated.
"I was just saying." Luis mumbled defensively.
"Well, don't." Julie added. Everyone wondered curiously why Julie was acting like bitchy Julie whenever someone brought up Goldberg's date, or any date in general, or a significant other. While they were all curious, none of the Ducks wanted to ask her about it, knowing that she would more then likely beat them senseless with her hockey stick. Luis held his hands up in surrender and whistled innocently.
"Oh, look." Dean said, hoping to get Julie to calm down, "There's Piper now." Julie looked over in the direction that Dean was waving in and sighed in relief, Piper had come with their mother and Adriaan.
"Hi mom." Julie said, serenely. Dean was satisfied with Julie's reaction because he knew that for some reason having Piper and her mother around always calmed Julie down. It was as if she was where she truly wanted to be.
"Hi, honey."
"Hey, Julie?" Piper asked, "You left your cell phone in my room yesterday." She pulled out Julie's razor phone and gave it to her, "You missed two calls. One from a guy named Kermit, and one from someone named Regan." Several of the Ducks laughed.
"Oh, shut up." Julie snapped, threatening to turn into bitchy and demonic Julie again and effectively shutting them up, "Kermit and Regan? Those are really the names that you saw." Piper nodded.
"Yup." A smoky, female voice said, "And you didn't pick up!" Julie turned as her eyes grew to the size of saucers, "We were calling to tell you we were coming to visit."
"Regan." Julie said happily as she walked up to the women and hugged her. All of the male Ducks gaped at the sight of her. She was fairly tall with dark brown hair and mischievously sparkling brown eyes. Her body was worked out, but not rock hard, and it was being showed off by a halter belly top, a jean jacket that was rolled up to her elbows, and a pair of baggy black jeans that were being help up by a hemp belt. Also, she had tattoos on her forearms, neck, hands, and stomach. Each of her ears had two earrings each, a belly button ring, and when she talked they noticed that she also had a tongue ring.
"Hey, Julie-Cat." Regan replied, "How you been?"
"As of late?" Julie asked, "Crappy. And you?"
Regan raised her eye brow, "Why crappy?" Julie just shook her head in reply, not wanting to talk about her dissent from Scooter's life that was rapidly speeding up.
"Where's Kermit?" Julie asked.
Regan shrugged, "Probably out kicking Dusty's ass somewhere."
Julie chuckled, "What did he do this time?"
"Refusal to ask for directions." Regan said simply, "We got lost in New York and I had to steal the wheel for a while."
"You all drove?" Regan nodded, "Oh, god."
"It was the only thing that we could do, according to Kermit." Regan explained, "Apparently if we did anything else the Richard and Marianne would have found out and insisted they come with us."
Julie chuckled sourly, "Just to bust my ass into hell and back."
"Julie?" Piper's voice brought her back to reality.
"Oh, right." Julie said as she turned around, "Guys, I want you all to meet Regan Craig. She's my brother's girlfriend."
"Brother?" Piper and Jada asked at the same time.
Julie shook her head, "Stepbrother." She corrected. Regan couldn't help but notice the scoff in the older women's face. This was clearly the mother that Julie had told her about, but was never allowed to talk about by her father, nor her stepmother, Marianne.
"You must be Julie's mother." Regan said as she held out her hand to Jada, "Julie's told us a lot about you."
"Us?" Jada asked.
Regan nodded, "Kermit and I, plus our friend Dusty, the direction phobic one that I was talking about earlier." Jada nodded, "Speaking of whom..." She added, pointing in the direction of door to the outside. Julie laughed to herself as she watched her 23 year old stepbrother and his best friend since the age of two argue about why Kermit was never freaked out by anything that anyone did. Unless, of course, it was Julie doing something, then he switched into older-brother mode.
"You two are psychotic." Julie said as she rolled her eyes. Kermit flashed a half smile and left Dusty to pull Julie into a huge bear hug, "Kermit? Kermit? Kermit Raymond St. Clair, I can't breathe."
Kermit looked at her for a moment and dropped her, "Sorry, sis." Kermit was tall and skinny, but he was not one to be messed with. His hair was light brown and cut short and he had a well trimmed beard to match; he wore blue jeans and a black long sleeved shirt that covered the memoriam tattoo that he had gotten for his father when he died. Julie knew Kermit's tattoo and the story behind it from beginning to end. His father, Patrick St. Clair, had been big news all over the country in stocks and investments and that kind of thing, but when Kermit was 15 he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. The doctors removed it and Patrick was given a clean bill of health for the time being; then when Kermit turned 20 and the tumor grew back, causing Patrick to die within 2 months. The memoriam tattoo was on Kermit's chest, over his heart, and it was a brain with "Patrick St. Clair" written over it in curly writing.
Julie nodded, "Kermit, this is my mom and sister, Piper." She pointed over to her mother and sister as Kermit stiffened with a this-is-awkward look painted on his face. Julie sighed and pulled Kermit's collar down so that she could talk in his ear, "Disregard anything that dad said about her."
Kermit pulled himself back up and nodded as well, "I've already done that." He reassured her, "Particularly after George and I spent some quality time together. He likes her."
"When did you and my grandfather spend quality time together?" Julie asked, baffled.
"He brought me to the big JV/Varsity showdown last year." Kermit replied nonchalantly. Julie's eyes widened, she didn't know that they were there,"When all the wedding plans where going on... I thought I was going to go insane, so he offered to pull me away for a while."
"The wedding." Julie said bitterly, "Between dad and Marianne... The wedding that I wasn't invited to." Kermit distinctly saw Julie's mother drop her jaw, "The wedding that I knew nothing about until I came home for Spring Break, which was two weeks after said wedding." Julie slammed her fist on the table, "That wedding?" She asked sweetly.
"Uh-huh." Kermit replied. Julie noticed that Kermit was getting exceedingly angry as well, so an idea popped into her head that would cheer them both up at poor Dusty's expense.
"Hey, Dusty?" Julie asked. He pulled his sunglasses down over his nose and leaned against the table next to Kermit, "What's the capital of Thailand?"
Dusty shook his head in confusion at this question, but answered nonetheless, "Bangkok. Why?"
"Exactly." Julie said slyly. Dusty looked confused as Kermit raised his hand slightly, made it into a fist, and thrust it between his friend's legs, "Bangkok... Bang. Cock. Bangkok."
"You two suck." Dusty breathed as he feel into a seat while everyone around him laughed or tried to keep from laughing.
Dean, however, couldn't keep what he had had on his mind inside anymore. He raised his hands and pretended to bow, "Julie is queen. Julie is queen. Cat-lady almighty." Julie laughed and playfully shoved Dean's shoulder and it took all that he had to let her hand move away.
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Goldberg sat quietly in his booth at Mickey's. Tarah at told him that it was one of her favorite places to go, so he told her to meet him there. He was thanking God in every way that Mrs. Conway didn't work past 12:45 on Saturday's, otherwise it would have been really awkward to talk to her about what he was doing there. He tapped his straw against the table and sighed. "Am I boring you?" A voice asked.
He looked up and saw Tarah standing on the other side of the booth, "Now I'm not bored."
Tarah giggled, "I'm so sorry that I took so long." She sighed, "My mother had to get all of her paperwork together and she recruited me. I hate it when she does that."
"Paperwork?"
Tarah sighed heavily, "She's a real estate agent." She rolled her eye, "And she has this delusion that I'm going to follow her into that line of work. No thank you."
"What do you want to do?" Goldberg asked.
Tarah looked slightly uncomfortable, but she spoke nonetheless, "If I tell you, do you promise not to be completely weirded out?" He nodded, "Okay, I want to go to Midwifery school and became a registered Midwife."
"Cool."
"Really?" Tarah asked, "You think so?"
Goldberg nodded, "My Great Aunt Abigail and my cousin Dianna are both midwifes... Well, Great Aunt Abigail has retired, but you get the point."
"Really." Tarah said, "No kidding."
"Nope."
Tarah chuckled to herself, "So, what does the great goalie-slash-defense men what to do with his life outside of High School?"
Goldberg couldn't help but notice her laugh, it was really sweet and caring. Plus, she always gave the impression of a nice person, even when she was spreading orange flavored ice cream all over a bitchy cheerleader. Not to mention, he liked the way that she called him 'Greg', "I don't know really." He admitted, "I was thinking of doing something like my parents; with the deli, you know. I might take it over, I might not." He shrugged.
"That's a good answer." Tarah said, "You don't need to know yet." Goldberg nodded as she looked over the menu, "I will be eating... everything."
"Everything?"
"Well, I mean, I can't let good burgers go to waste. Plus you need fries and onion rings and drinks to go with. But I'm also a sucker for nostalgic foods like a good, old fashioned grilled cheese sandwich or a bowl of macaroni and cheese. And, no one can forget desserts." She smiled and her eyes twinkled.
Goldberg laughed, "You are a girl after my own heart."
"I hope that was a compliment." Tarah replied.
"It most certainly was." Goldberg replied.
Tarah smiled, "Thank you, Greg." She looked back over the menu, "We could be here a while."
"That's what I like to hear."
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Dani sighed as she skated around the ice. It had to be at least 11:30 at night, but she was stressed and she felt that she needed to be skating, that she wasn't good enough yet. The only light that she had was the light from the few over head lights that she had bothered to turn on, and they were getting dimmer by the second. Actually, to her it looked like a scene from a movie or something.
Breathing deeply, Dani skated around to gain speed. As soon as she thought she had enough, Dani set herself up for a double Lutz. She thought that she had done everything correctly, but as soon as she landed, it was all wrong. Although she didn't fall, it didn't take a rocket scientist to know that she had... "You Flutzed." A voice said.
"I'm aware of that." Dani replied to her coach as he walked down to her, thinking correctly that he would find her there. Dani hated the 'Flutz' as much as anyone in skating. A Flutz was combining a flip with a Lutz, with the skater rocking to the inside before they take off, "I haven't Flutzed since I was 10." She hated doing so as well.
"You need to stop putting so much pressure on yourself." He replied as she turned around to look at him, "I've already taken you to the hospital once, and I don't want to do it again. You shouldn't stress yourself out."
Dani chuckled, "'Shouldn't stress myself out'?" She asked incredulously, "This is the Olympics, remember? Or has it slipped your mind?"
"No, no it hasn't." He replied, smiling to himself, "But after you made the team, I asked everyone that I could about you and your skating. They all said that it was as if you were in your own little world and that nothing that you ever did went wrong if you were like that."
Dani shook her head and sighed, "Pardon me saying, but lately my 'own little world' has gotten a little bit fucked up as of late."
"You're pardoned." He replied. Dani rolled her eyes, "Look, I understand about having problems." He sighed, as if not wanting to say what was on his mind, "If you want to drop out, you still have time. I don't want you too, but..."
"NO!" Dani practically screamed, "I mean, no, I don't. I really, really don't. I just have some stuff that I have to work out, but it's not going to knock me out."
"That's good to know." He said, "But you know what will knock you out?" Dani shook her head, "Lack of sleep. Come on, you need to rest." Dani laughed lightly and skated over to the opening in the wall. She sat and pulled of her skates, put on her shoes, tied the laces together, and placed them over her shoulder, "Come on." He walked next to her as she turned off the lights and they exited the warm building to get blasted with cold and snow.
"Minnesota's lovely this time of year, isn't it?" She asked. Dani would be the first to admit that she loved pretty much any form of precipitation. Being in the lightly falling snow reminded her of her first date with Adam, when they ran in the rain and fell in the mud. Sighing heavily, Dani tried to put the thought out of her mind.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Dani replied, but she knew that he wasn't satisfied with that, "It's girl stuff." She added.
"Then I won't ask."
"Thank you." Dani breathed out heavily so that her breath turned into ice in front of her. She stopped for a moment, thinking that she thought that she heard footsteps coming towards them from the front, but she shrugged it off and raced to catch back up.
"I thought that you were going back."
"Nope. You're right, I'm beat." Once again she thought that she heard something, "Wait, did you hear that?" She asked worriedly.
He looked around, "No. What was it?"
"I have no idea."
"Then we should go." He placed his hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her away from the cold metal and concrete building that was the home side of the football field, "Look out!" He screamed as Dani felt herself being pushed down onto the ground.
Dani caught herself as she fell felt her wrist twisting and turning, but not breaking. She called out in pain as her wrist became sprained, but when she looked up, she gasped in horror. A tall and deathly thin man, wearing a ski mask, had his hand to Eric Orion's stomach and when he pulled it away, he pulled a knife out as well. Dani watched as her coach fell to the ground in pain and the man turned on her, "For so long." He whispered, "You didn't like my gifts. You ungrateful bitch."
As the man, who looked about ten feet tall to Dani at the moment, raised the knife in her direction and walked towards her, hunched over, as if he wanted to look in her eyes. Dani back away, holding her wrist to her chest, and suddenly felt a cold, metal blade against her hand. She ran her hand down the metal and felt slippery wood attached to it. 'A shovel!' Dani cried to herself as she picked it up and swung it as hard as possible. The thud that she heard told her that she met her mark.
Dani dropped the shovel and crawled over to her Coach, "Coach?" She asked. He mumbled incoherently, causing Dani to rush to pull out her cell phone as she placed her sprained hand over his wound and pressing hard, despite the pain it caused her. Quickly dialing 911, she made sure to keep an eye on the attacker, "Hello?" She asked as a women operator picked up, "We need an ambulance. Someone just attacked us with a knife." The women asked if anyone was hurt, "Several people." Dani replied, "We're at Eden Hall, near the football field, please hurry." The women continued talking to her until she saw lights, "They're here!" Dani said happily as she hung up. She pulled out the mini flashlight that her coach always had in his pocket and shined it to get their attention.
"Are you alright?" A male police office in his mid 20's asked as he reached her.
"I've been better." Dani said, noticing that the man was looking around rather twitchy. "If you're looking for the knife wielding maniac, he's over there." She pointed towards the area that he had fallen in.
"What happened to him?" The cop asked as EMTs and the man's partner ran up to them.
"I hit him with a shovel." Dani said simply as she raised her hand from the wound to let the EMTs take over.
"Single stab wound." One of the EMTs said, "It looks pretty deep." Dani gasped as she moved her hand back to her chest. The EMT gently took a hold of her wrist, "Sprained wrist."
"Yeah." Dani replied, "Not me that I'm worried about." A second group of EMTs tended to the masked man, "He's a knife wielder." Dani informed them.
"My guess is that you gave him a shovel to the head." Another EMT said as they raised the man onto a stretcher.
"He had a knife." Dani replied exasperatedly. She watched as they raised a flashlight and began to wheel him away. "Wait." Dani called, remembering what the man had said. His gifts, that meant that he was the one making her life hell, "I want to see his face."
"Are you sure?" Dani nodded as the EMTs raised the flashlight to the man's face and pulled off his ski mask. Dani felt her jaw drop and tears fill in her eyes.