A/N: This is a story I wrote, which would work great if "Liv and Maddie" were on a more teen aimed network, such as ABC Family or MTV, rather than The Disney Channel - so stating that, please be aware that the language used in this story is more on the teen level, than the G-rated, Disney channel, children's level. This is a story that focuses on what really occurs to teens these days - bullying. I hope you enjoy the first part of this story.
I.
It was a Friday evening - late, when Joey angrily walked through the door of his home. He was drenched in water, cold, humiliated and upset. He heard the voices of Liv, Maddie, Diggie and his parents' in the kitchen. He didn't feel like being bothered with them, not tonight, not after what he went through. He just felt like going upstairs to his room, hiding himself there and crying out his anger, his frustrations, his hurt and new-found depression - and that's exactly what he did as he rushed upstairs to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.
Later ~ 7 P.M.
Liv, Maddie and their parents', along with Diggie were in the kitchen, sharing in Maddie's ecstatic news about how she aced the first test she was given of the new school year.
"And so there I was," Maddie said with a full smile, "still staring at my perfect "A" Biology test, thinking - I really aced this."
Maddie laughed happily.
"Bam-what!" Maddie said loudly with excitement, with light laughter from Diggie.
"Well, I'm glad this first week has been going great for all of you." Karen Rooney said with a pleasant smile. "Oh, I can't believe this is you and Liv's senior year. It seems like just yesterday I was just powdering your baby bottoms with Johnson and Johnson."
Liv widened her eyes and stared at her mother as if she's nuts.
"Yeah mom, thank you for that very embarrassing memory." Liv said lightly with laughter from Diggie and Maddie.
At that moment, Joey walked in the kitchen, heading straight for the fridge, avoiding everyone, his sunshades on, hiding his bruised, black eye. Karen, Pete, Diggie, Liv and Maddie stared at Joey observantly.
"Hey Joey, we were wondering when you would come down," Pete Rooney said. "how was your first full week back at school?"
"Fine, just fine dad." Joey said in a cold, bitter tone.
Joey grabbed a bottled water out of the fridge and turned on his heels to walk back out of the kitchen, but was stopped by Karen stepping in front of him.
Karen stared at Joey suspiciously.
"Joey honey, are you alright?" Karen asked.
Joey sighed and looked down briefly at his bottled water and nodded.
"Yeah mom, I'm fine. Leave me alone." Joey said in a low, bitter tone before walking around Karen.
Karen stared at him, slightly baffled. Liv grabbed Joey's arm lightly.
"Joey," Liv said, "Are you sure you're -"
Joey angrily yanked his arm away and pushed Liv away.
"I SAID I'm fine!" Joey yelled, his voice slightly cracking. Joey was seconds away from breaking down into sobs again. It didn't take much this night to completely break Joey down emotionally.
Maddie frowned at Joey, confused.
"Whoa, calm down Joey," Maddie said lightly.
"Oh go to hell." Joey said before walking to the door.
Pete quickly walked over to Joey and stepped in front of him.
"Hey, wait a minute," Pete said firmly. "Now I don't know what's going on with you tonight but you are NOT to use that language again, alright?"
Joey sighed angrily.
"Whatever, can I leave now?" Joey asked angrily.
Pete frowned at Joey, growing angry himself at Joey's attitude.
"No," Pete said sharply. "You know what, NO you can NOT -"
Joey sucked his teeth and sighed again angrily.
"WHY?!" Joey yelled, his voice beginning to crack even more, slowly revealing the emotion he was feeling inside. "Look, I'm SORRY for using the swear word ok, now can you all LEAVE me alone?!"
Joey looked away as tears streamed down from under his sunshades, it was tears that Pete, Liv and Maddie could clearly see. Maddie stared at Joey with concern.
"Joey you're crying, what's wrong?" Maddie asked.
Joey shook his head and quickly wiped his streaming tears away, before moving around his father.
"I'm not going to say it again, I don't want to talk to any of you." Joey snapped in a lightly tearful voice, before storming out the kitchen.
Pete stared at Karen, trying to decipher from her Joey's behavior.
"Ok, that was WEIRD." Diggie said with a shake of his head.
"Yeah, I think it's safe to say, his first week obviously didn't go well." Karen said with a shake of her head, tossing a dish towel in her hand across the table in frustration.
"I think I should go up and talk to him, find out what's going on." Pete said.
"No, dad," Maddie said with a slight shake of her own head. "Maybe can I talk to him? He might not feel like telling what's wrong with him to his parents' but maybe he might open up to me."
Pete sighed and nodded, too overwhelmed by Joey's behavior to even say anything else.
Joey walked into his room, slamming his door behind him. He dropped down beside his bed and hugged his knees up to his chest, feeling tears cloud his eyes. He felt broken, he felt helpless. The first week of school was horrible for him, devastating in fact. What he went through during that first week made him feel like never returning back to school again. As he thought back on the day, the worst day of the entire week for him, he broke into sobs, crying more than he did before, when he first entered his bedroom. The more he cried, the more he felt hurt, emotionally and mentally. He had an entire school year to get through and already the first week of school was kicking his ass, giving him a more crueler, harsher dose of reality, reality when it came to how high school really was. What was he going to do? How was he going to cope?
