Disclaimer. Characters and property of Disney chanel.

The news had travelled around the school like the fiend fire the rivals were so fond of referencing, and nobody had known how to react, not the two blonde twins who according to joey's stalker looked so much like him, or the troublesome younger brother.

The other family were as clueless in how to handle the news as they were, the dark haired brother of Artie felt like he'd been slammed by a truck, the same truck that hit the Roonie family.

The students and faculty were silent, upon hearing the news...Artie, and Joey broke up.

At least that was the only word they had for it, the 'archenemies hadn't just drawn a cease fire like the times of amicable union the school had experienced before when the two would join forces, this was different.

Official.

They had announced the split loudly and publicly after a particularly gruesome fight, this one not just with words or fake pretend spells like what would normally amuse the school, fists had been drawn, and hits taken.

To be specific one fist was drawn, and one hit taken. Although there was contention amongst the silent whispers as to who hit who, after there was silence between them.

A declaration of separation announced due to 'conflicting wishes' and ' unresolved conflicts' nobody quite knew what the words meant, what the issues were, or what the conflicts were...but what was clear was that they would act as though the other didn't exist unless it was necessary.

Artie had made the minions take the vow of invisibility as well, although Joey had weakly argued that it was a step too far.

Then they had shaken hands, and walked away from each other.

Maddie had been in the front row, she didn't know what they were fighting about, or understood most of the strange nerd legal terms...but she recognized a break up when she saw one, even if the couple weren't dating, or even friends...and Joey and Artie that was a break up, and it forced a wave of uncomfortable silence over the entire school.

Which is how Maddie came to be here, in her mother's office sitting in front of her mother send her multiple degrees having been dragged out of math on the grounds of 'ongoing therapy for her past knee injury' of which was healed, and had been for months, everyone knew it was a crap answer...but who was going to argue with both the student counsellor, and the vice principle?.

Her mother linked her fingers loosely together and leant her elbows on the desk, placing her chin in the nook they formed.

Maddie raised an eyebrow "what do you want, mum?" she asked, not unhappy to be out of math, but annoyed to be dragged away from the hidden notes her and willow had been passing.

Her mother grimaced "is it true about Artie and Joey?" the older woman asked.

Maddie shrugged "you mean the break up? Yeah, I saw it" she answered, she had secretly been dying to talk about it for the past two hours since it happened, but no matter the lines she threw out no fish would bite on the bait and open the topic up.

Her mother flipped her dark hair "break up? Interesting term" she murmured, and Maddie recognized the technique her mum used for getting students to open up.

Maddie shrugged again "what would you call it? They had a fight, ended their weird frenemy thing, and refuse to speak to each other." She listed easily "what else do you call that?" she snorted sarcastically, not worried about being chided for her attitude, her movements had way bigger fish to fry right now.

Her mum pursed her lips as Maddie sat back and observed the small familiar room "I suppose" her mum conceded.

"I heard fists were involved" her mum probed transparently making Maddie smirk at the obvious attempt.

"yeah, I'm not sure who hit who though" she bit her lip and sat back.

Her mum frowned and Maddie saw the suspicion in her face "Maddie if you're trying to protect your-" her mum started.

"I'm not." she cried indignantly "I really don't know, it was kind of a blur, they were really close then there was arm waving and then someone yelled through the yelling..." Maddie tried to think, but it was like a western movie where the fights was in a cloud of dust "I don't know." she admitted sitting back down in the chair. When she looked up she saw the suspicion had cleared "Okay. I believe you, do you know what it was about?" the question was met with a head shake and a whipping blonde ponytail.

"Okay" her mum said tiredly "go on back to class, and tell Willow she should back of for a while, the last thing she needs is to suffer the wrath of either a Joey or Artie reeling from their 'break up'" the air quotes didn't need the gestures for Maddie to hear them.

Maddie nodded, all she had to do was tell Willow that it was what was best for Joey and she would back off. Then on that clear dismissal Maddie stood and began walking out, stopping with her hand on the door know when she heard her mum call her back

"Oh, and Madison"

"yeah, mum" she turned to see how serious her mum looked.

"don't try to talk to him about it, if he wants to he will. But leave it alone" her mother warned, holding her gaze soberly as Maddie nodded and left.

Throughout math Maddie wondered if Liv and Parker would be called in, she sent notes that subtly informed Willow of her and her mums conversation, and got Willow with mild manipulation to vow to stay away from Joey for a while.

She had tried talking to Diggy via text messaging in class about it, but he wouldn't bite.

The brothers had always stayed out of each others business like that though, so it didn't surprise Maddie when he in two words declared the topic closed. 'Leave it' no emoji's, or gifs just those two firm words that made muddies stomach fall as she realized anything Diggy knew was on the topic was closed to her on the basis that he wouldn't discuss it.

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