When Tyler is eight years old, his entire family starts going to see Dr. Stump.
Tyler is not happy.
"I don't wanna go see Dr. Stump!" Tyler whines. "It sounds boring! Josh said that all he does with Dr. Stump is talk!"
"They also play games," his mother tells him. "And they draw a lot, too."
"Boring," Tyler says. "Boring, boring, boring, boring. I don't want to see Dr. Stump."
"You really don't have a choice," his mother informs him.
Not that Tyler would ever tell his mother this, but he kind of enjoys going to the Dr. Stump appointments.
Dr. Stump has a lot of art supplies and board games, and sometimes they play games where they get to eat candy.
"I want you all to draw yourselves," Dr. Stump says one day as he passes out paper.
Tyler eagerly begins drawing, snatching the black crayon that Josh was reaching for.
Dr. Stump gives them ten minutes to draw before telling them to put their crayons down and start sharing their drawings. They're all pretty unremarkable. Except for Josh's, of course.
"That's you?" Tyler asks, snickering as he looks at Josh's self-portrait. "You look like a girl!"
Josh flushes. "I do not," he mutters.
"You do!" Tyler laughs, pointing. "Look at your lips!"
"Let's move on to our second activity," Dr. Stump says, starting to collect their drawings. He looks kind of freaked out. Tyler wonders why.
"Don't make fun of him," Maddy says with a frown. "Yours looks like your hair and eyes are on fire."
Tyler looks down at his drawing. His drawing abilities are really rather good, thanks to an art day camp Tyler's parents sent him and Zack to the summer after Maddy was born. He knows to put the eyes in the middle of the face, not the top like Maddy does.
Tyler looks over at Josh's paper. Josh too, apparently, knows to put the eyes in the middle of the face. Whatever. Josh's self-portrait's lips are far too large and red.
"Be quiet," Tyler mumbles to Maddy.
"For our second activity," Dr. Stump says loudly, "we're going to play a game called Castle. First, I want you to picture a faraway land, away from everything you know."
"What's there-ape-ee like?" Jenna asks.
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youll be just fine (oh alien)
FanfictionWhen Tyler is seven years old, his parents sit him and all his siblings down and quietly tell them that there's going to be a new boy staying here, one a little older than Tyler. Tyler does not react well to that. Tyler isn't happy to...
