Disclaimer: I do not own Liv & Maddie.

The bright morning light seeped through the window sill, shining down upon the sleeping form of Maddie Rooney, captain and star of the Ridgewood High Girls' Basketball team. She stirred, unwilling to wake up just yet. She felt like going back to sleep for a million years. Her eyelids were cinder blocks. But, she knew she had to get up eventually, so, gathering all her strength, she threw off her blanket and leapt like a majestic tiger, pausing for a second to stand and stretch.

When she was finished, she noticed that her twin, Liv Rooney, famous actor and former star of Sing It Loud and Space Werewolves, was absent from her bed. She didn't think much of it; even though Liv being up before Maddie on a Saturday was odd. Shrugging it off and grabbing her glasses, Maddie slowly made her way downstairs, still clad in pajamas, to get some breakfast. In the kitchen, she found her mom, Karen, dressed in a light blue robe and making some eggs and bacon.

"Morning, sweetie," Karen greeted cheerfully.

"Ugh," Maddie replied, taking a seat at the table.

"Wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" her mom inquired.

"Just not feeling like talking this morning."

Maddie hadn't been feeling like talking much at all lately. Not since she broke up with her boyfriend Diggie. After he had returned from Tundrabania, he and Maddie just didn't seem to get along anymore. They started arguing over little things, Diggie "unintentionally" flirting with other girls, Maddie being hesitant to show public affection, both being stubborn and not saying anything when there's something the other is doing that annoys them, etc. Unfortunately, neither made much of an effort to patch things up. In the end, they both decided to go back to being friends.

Karen fixed her up a plate and set it before Maddie. "You know, there are a lot more fish in the sea. And a lot more bacon and eggs."

"Yeah," Maddie sighed, "but, I really thought me and Diggie had something special going on. If I couldn't get it right with him, who can I get it right with." Maddie looked down at her breakfast, depressed and heartbroken. For the first few days after breaking up with Diggie, she just ended up in her room, crying her eyes out like there was no tomorrow. Luckily for her, her friends and family helped her through that difficult time, especially her sister Liv.

Her sister had been very attentive to her emotional needs. Liv remained by her side the whole time, like a faithful canine, offering comfort and trying to cheer her up through whatever means she could think of. Loyal and caring, she even turned down a leading role in a movie to stay with Maddie. It reminded Maddie that she would feel truly lost in the world if Liv wasn't in her life.

Karen embraced her daughter in a bear like hug. "Aww, sweetie. There'll be lots of boys who you'll like and things just won't work out, but you'll find that one special person who you just can't stand to be without."

"Really?

"Really. But, make sure to hide him from your father or he'll probably make him run laps until he drops." Maddie and her mom chuckled; the laughter lightened the mood considerably. Seeing he job done, Karen went back to the stove, putting the finishing touches on breakfast before the other Rooneys were up and about. For her part, Maddie just focused on putting the whole Diggie matter in the back of her mind and enjoying the nice, hot food before her, feeling a bit better about things.

Just as Maddie was finished with her breakfast, the doorbell rang. Before her mom had a chance to get a word in edgewise, she went to go get, but when she opened the door, instead of a person, she found a pink envelope with her name neatly scrawled on it in cursive and a beautiful red rose on the welcome mat. She looked at the items for a minute, perplexed. She took a quick look around, finding no one who could have left her these. Finding no one in sight, she grabbed them and closed the door, noticing that the rose had no thorns. She headed back to the kitchen when her mom called her, asking who was at the door.

When she arrived, she found the entire Rooney clan, her parents, two younger brothers and Liv, gathered at the table for breakfast. Photogenic as always, Liv had a bright smile plastered on her face and was the only Rooney at the table not still in their sleepwear.

"Ooh, whatcha got, Maddie?" she said, pointing to the envelope and rose in Maddie's hands. Everyone's eyes were turned towards Maddie now.

"Oh, uh, just something someone left at the front door," Maddie tried to act like she thought it was nothing, but nobody believed her for a second and demanded she open it.

"Come on, Maddie. What is it?" Maddie's youngest brother, Parker, asked. Parker was arguably one of the weirdest people in the Rooney family, but he had competition to the tittle of weirdest when compared to his older brother, Joey. Together, they were definitely the weirdest of the bunch.

"Ooh, do you think it could be a treasure map?" Joey asked Parker. When the two of them got going, it usual meant trouble. And boy, did they ever get going. They just kept hounding Maddie to open the enveloped, hoping that she would cave.

Desiring to stop her annoying brothers, Maddie acquiesced. "Alright, alright already! I'll open it," she announced. Without a care in the world, she ripped open the envelope and found a piece of paper in it. On said paper was a poem, written neatly in ink:

Dearest Maddie,
You make me so happy.

Talking to you,
I never feel blue.

You are a warm summers day
that chases all the clouds of gray away.

You are such a basketballer;
I just wanna holler.

Maddie, you are beautiful
and wonderful.

Sincerely,

your secret admirer,

A.B.C.

As Maddie read the poem out loud, she blushed a dark pink. No one had ever written her a love letter before, except for that one time when Liv wrote her one in elementary school, but that didn't count. She looked around at her family: Joey and Parker looked disappointed, Liv and her mom looked ecstatic, and her dad looked, well, concerned.

"Wow, Maddie!" Karen exclaimed. "What a lovely poem and a flower too." Maddie had almost forgotten about the flower in her other hand. "See. I told you there were plenty of fish in the sea."

"I'm not sure I like this fish," Maddie's dad, Pete, proclaimed. His wife immediately shot him a look.

"Come on, Pete. It's romantic."

"It's creepy. I oughta go find this guy and make him run laps 'til he drops."

"Well, it's Maddie's letter. Let's hear what she has to say."

They turned to look at Maddie, who was still surprised by the letter. Unable to come up with an intelligent response, she decided to make a break for it.

"Uh, I'm, um, gonna, uh, go to my room," she managed to get out before racing up the stairs. Her parents tried to talk to her, but, being the basketball player she is, she was gone before they knew it.

"I'll go talk to her," Liv told her parents. She then followed her sister up the stairs, a small smile tugging on her lips.

A/N: So, this is the first chapter of a new story. Constructive criticism and offers for beta reading will be greatly appreciated. I'm haven't written in a a while, so I'm a little rusty. The poem for this chapter was original. The ones in the following probably won't be, and if so, I will have them marked as such with author's name and site I am getting it from. Thank you for reading. Have a nice day