Russell's POV:

I got to stay with the Cullens and my teacher came over to teach me at home every day. Mrs. Barnes said I was doing really well in school and that I should be able to start second grade with the rest of my class next year. But Carlisle did not like that idea one bit: he said he wanted Mrs. Barnes to keep teaching me all summer and all next year and the summer after that if need be. I was supposed to be in Edward's grade and he wanted my one-on-one tutoring to continue until I was. I was three whole grades behind Edward, but as long as Carlisle had the money, Mrs. Barnes was willing to teach me.

After homeschool, my therapist would come over. Dr. Flynn told the Cullens that I was doing a really good job in therapy too, although all I really did was talk to her, so I was not sure how I could mess that up. Dr. and Mrs. Cullen liked her so much that they asked her to be Jasper and Edward's therapist too. So now she sticks around until they come home from school and takes them into their rooms to talk. Dr. Flynn said Edward was just as good at therapy as I was, but she said Jasper needed to work a little harder. I was a little surprised because I was not aware of anything Jasper had ever failed at before.

Jasper even got in really big trouble because of therapy. I do not know what happened to set him off, but he ran out of the room, slammed the door in Dr. Flynn's face, and ran off into the woods. Apparently after that he snuck around to the garage and grabbed his bike and rode it to the neighbor's house. Mrs. Cullen was really upset and worried until Henry's mom called and said he showed up at her house.

Needless to say, after that stunt Jasper got in big trouble and he was grounded for a whole week. And he had to have extra therapy, which he said was the worst punishment, because he could read while grounded. Being told to go read was more of a treat than a punishment to him. And since I was still stuck in the house because of my broken leg and Jasper was grounded, I decided to ask him what had happened with Dr. Flynn in the first place.

"Nothing," he answered, obviously not telling the truth.

"I like Dr. Flynn. She's really nice. Mostly she lets me talk about whatever I want and how I feel and watches me play. Today she just watched me play with my cars for an hour."

"She never lets me play cars."

"Have you tried? When I don't feel like talking, but want to play, I just tell her I had a long day and want to play and she lets me."

"She takes my toys away and says I need to talk to her. Show me what you do when you play, so I can do it too. Please?" he asked me.

"Okay, go get my bin of cars and I'll show you. She just watches me and takes notes for hours."

Jasper went to my room and came back with the cars, so I dumped them out on the floor and asked Esme to help me get down out of the recliner in the living room and onto the floor to play. Once I was down, I picked up my dark blue car and showed Jasper. "This is the daddy car. And the red one is the mommy car. And the orange one is you, the pink one is Edward, the yellow one is Lily, the purple one is Daisy, the green one is me, and the black one is Mrs. Barnes. See this green one has to go to school with Mrs. Barnes because he is a stupid car. But then he gets to go home with the red car and be told how pretty he is and put on this other outer shell."

Esme had gotten me a car with interchangeable parts, so I could take the green shell off and pop on a shiny red one. After I showed that cool car to Jasper, I pulled out my white car. "But this white car is the red/green car's old mommy and then she makes him take care of the yellow and purple cars while she goes to work. The white car is gonna come and take him away from the blue and red cars, but he doesn't want to go," I finished. That was what I had been playing this afternoon for Dr. Flynn.

"Cool! I normally just race the cars and pretend they crash and blow up or are shooting at each other. Can I borrow your cars and play that game for Dr. Flynn tomorrow?" he asked me with wide eyes.

"Sure, but why don't you use your cars to play my game?"

"Okay, but I want to use that changing car too. I think that's what Dr. Flynn likes."

"Are you just trying to figure out how to beat the system?" I asked. Lily used to try to cheat on her homework and I never let her do that. How would she grow up to be smart if she was allowed to cheat?

"Yeah, but only a little. I really do like your cars and I want to play cars for Dr. Flynn instead of talking. I know: how about tomorrow you come in with me and we play cars together?"

"Okay Jazz, that sound fun. But after that you have to promise me that you will talk to her and try harder in therapy."

"Kay. You want to read a book now?" he asked excitedly.

So I let Jasper read me a book. He somehow always knew what book Mrs. Barnes was going to bring next and would read it to me before she came so that I would already know a few of the words. It made me feel smart when I knew some of the words. Jasper and I had really bonded now that we were brothers.

Jasper got off of being grounded the day before I got my cast off so we were begging Esme to take us out somewhere. I really liked Esme and Carlisle and I was really hoping that they would adopt me. They both told me that they had asked the judge to adopt me. And the judge had already said that I was not going back to my real mom, ever. Now it just depended on if the judge thought that the Cullens would be able to take good care of me. So I was keeping my fingers crossed that I would have a new mom and dad soon.

I sometimes slipped and called Esme and Carlisle, Mom and Dad, but normally I still called them aunt and uncle. I did not want to call them Mom and Dad until it was official. I told Dr. Flynn that and she said that it was fine. And Esme and Carlisle did not seem to mind me calling them aunt and uncle, so everything seemed to be fine.

"Can we go to the movies on Saturday?" Edward asked Esme as she served us dinner the night Jasper got off grounding.

"I want to see the new Harry Potter movie!" Jasper announced. "And I was really good at therapy today."

I had gone with Jasper to therapy the day after our talk and Dr. Flynn watched us play cars together. He crashed the cars a lot, and I did not want him chipping the paint on my cars, so he asked Esme to buy him his own changing cars. She had said no at first, because he was in trouble, but as soon as he said that they were for therapy, she rushed right out and bought him three. Once he got the cars, he named the first one Jasper, the second one Edward, and the third one Russell. And ever since he showed Dr. Flynn those cars, she has let him play cars in therapy, just as long as he tells her how the cars feel.

Jasper kept coming to me before therapy and asking me how his purple car felt. I told him he had to figure that out for himself. He would come back after therapy and tell me the purple car felt sad and scared because he missed his mommy, but he liked being purple. Then he would tell me that the red car wanted to be purple too, but his daddy made him be red all of the time. Then he would say the yellow car was just really mad that the black car always wanted to talk and know how all of the cars felt, when he just really wanted to read.

"Dr. Flynn did say you've been doing much better in therapy Jazz… But we'll have to wait for your uncle to get home and ask him if he'll go with us," Esme replied.

"Why do we need to ask him to go with us to the store if I'll have my cast off?" I asked. "I should be able to walk."

"We aren't going to the store, Rus!" Edward exclaimed.

"Rus, have you ever been to a movie theater?" Esme asked me.

I did not even know what a movie theater was, so Esme explained it to me. She said it was a big room with a giant TV screen where we could watch a movie before it came out on DVD. There was a movie theater in Port Angeles, which was kind of far, but we could go as a family as long as Carlisle did not have to work.

When Carlisle got home, he said a movie on Saturday was fine and that I had to get up early to go with him to work the next day. He said he would remove my cast and then Esme would take me back home after dropping my brothers off at school. And I could move into my new room upstairs as soon as I got back.

I had yet to see my new room, but Esme was always asking me how I wanted it and showing me pictures of it. So far she had panted it red and added race-track trim along the top. She bought me a race car bedding set and curtains to match, along with a stuffed car for my bed. She said that she was painting all of my shelves red, but my bed was an antique one that came with the house, so she was not going to change that. Jasper told me that there was even a race-track rug on the old wooden floor.

I was really excited about getting my cast off and being able to walk again, but I was mostly excited about seeing my new room. Sure my pink room downstairs was really nice, but I really wanted my car room upstairs. Getting the new room would even make having to do my chores worth it.

Esme said that as soon as my cast was off, I would have to do the same amount of chores as Edward and Jasper. They had to make their beds, set the table, load the dish-washer after dinner, as well as pick up after themselves. I already helped make my bed and pick up after myself, but in my cast, someone always had to help me and do most of the work.

Someone also had to help me with normal stuff that I used to do by myself before, like getting dressed. I was looking forward to being able to dress myself again. Edward already had to dress Jasper every day, so Esme had been dressing me. But now I was going to have to split dressing Jasper with Edward.

I was not sure why Jasper could not dress himself, but I figured it was just because they baby him. He was the baby in the house, and as such, he was spoiled rotten. Well Edward was too, but he at least dressed himself and did not run away when we had company. Jasper was allowed to get away with most anything, and Carlisle just blamed it on some phobia of his. I wish I could get away with that.

So I went to bed Thursday night thinking about all of the things I would get to do tomorrow with my cast off. And just as he promised, Carlisle came in bright and early and woke me up. He helped me make my bed and get dressed and then we were off to the hospital and before I knew it, my cast was off.

I was a bit surprised to see my leg. Not only was it really pale from being in the cast for so long, but also I now had a wicked scar right where the bone had broken through. I had seen my leg twice before; on both occasions Carlisle had been changing my cast. But the first time the scar still had the stiches in. He removed the stitches and put on the new cast, all with me watching. But the second time he changed my cast, Edward and Jasper were with us and had been distracting me at the time, so I did not get a good look before I was in the new cast.

I was still getting used to the feel of fresh air on my leg when Esme arrived to take me home. We barely even got one load of my toys up to my new room before Mrs. Barnes showed up and I had to go to school. But at least after school, Dr. Flynn let me show her my new room for therapy.

My room was so cool I spent the rest of the evening organizing all of my toys. And before I knew it, it was Saturday morning and I was going to see my first ever movie in a theater. I was really excited, but first I had to do my chores. I made my bed and then I went to Jasper's room to help him get dressed.

Jasper and Edward both had rooms on the other side of the hall, while my room was on the same side of the hall as Esme and Carlisle's. Jasper's room was the closest to mine, so I walked directly across the hall and knocked before letting myself in. He was lying on his already made bed just reading a book. The fact that he was not even trying to get dressed made me mad, so I ordered, "Get dressed Jasper so we can go to the movies." Then I started looking through his toys.

Jasper listened and went straight to his dresser. But instead of picking his clothes and getting dressed, he pulled every drawer out and set them on his floor. Then he started taking every object out of every drawer and looking at it before throwing it into one big pile. No wonder my chore was to make him get dressed. "Stop Jazz. Just pick one piece from each drawer and put it on," I ordered as I flopped down on his bed.

So Jasper pulled out a sweater, a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts, a long sleeved shirt, a short sleeved shirt, a pair of pajamas, and a pair of underwear, but no socks. "No Jasper, just one shirt and one shorts or one pants. No pajamas and get some socks," I corrected, pointing to the items to put back.

"But the shorts and the pants were in different drawers!"

"I know, but it's either or."

"Fine, but the underwear and socks are in the same drawer and you said only one from each," he complained as he put the long sleeved shirt, the pajamas, and the pants back.

"I know, but you need socks and underwear, so you need one of each even though they are in the same drawer."

Fine," he grumbled and grabbed a pair of socks.

Then he stripped, put on a pair of boxers, followed by the shirt, shorts, and socks. He was leaning down to grab his shoes before I looked at him and what he was wearing: the shirt had blue and green stripes and was wide enough, but way too short, because two inches of his stomach could be seen hanging out the bottom. The shorts fit fine, but they had a red and yellow checked pattern and did not match the shirt in the least. The socks, on the other hand, were covered in orange and yellow dinosaurs, while the edge of his red and pink heart patterned boxers could be seen poking out the top of his shorts.

I started laughing and shaking my head as I pointed at his clothes. "No Jasper, you have to match the clothes and that shirt is too small."

He pulled off the shirt and grabbed the one I pointed to, which was solid red and actually fit. But I could tell he was getting frustrating, so I did not even mention that he still looked dorky and just let him put his drawers back. But when he was putting his sock and underwear drawer back, it fell on his foot, making a loud thumping noise and causing him to curl up into a ball clutching his foot.
"What happened?" Carlisle asked when he and Esme came into the room. Carlisle went immediately to Jasper and picked him up from the floor.

"He dropped the drawer on his foot," I answered, hoping that I was not in trouble, but not seeing how this could possibly be my fault.

Carlisle carried Jasper downstairs, probably to ice the foot, while Esme picked up the drawer and put it away. While she was picking up the clothing scattered around the room and returning them to the dresser she spoke, "You know Russell, dressing Jasper is on the list of chores for a reason. Different people have trouble with different things. You have trouble reading, while he has trouble getting dressed. Helping you read is on Jasper's list of chores and I have not seen him slack off on that chore once."

"Yes Ma'am."

"Now I'm sure you thought that you could just teach him to dress himself like you did your sisters, but everyone needs to be taught things at their own pace. He learns almost everything lightening quick, but when he struggles with something, he really struggles. He is still learning to pair shorts with tee-shirts and pants with sweaters. Then he will need to match patterns. And only after that might he be able to pick through an entire dresser and come back up with a set of clothes that will do.

"I was going to let you kids play until the movie starts, but now we have to clean up this room. And neither you nor Jasper is dressed and I still have not made breakfast. So I would suggest that next time you get this chore, you pick out his clothes and hand them to him. He can put them on himself. We spent all last year teaching him to put his clothes on himself and let me tell you that that was a lot of work."

"Yes Ma'am," I replied. I had no idea that Jasper had such trouble getting dressed. But now that I knew that he was not just faking it to be babied, I figured I would have no choice but to pick out his clothes for him. So I got up from the bed and started folding clothes from the big pile Jasper had left on the floor.

"Now pick out something nice for Jasper to wear because Edward is wearing slacks and a tie and I assume you are going to wear a nice sundress," Esme said when we finished cleaning the room.

So I went to Jasper's closet and pulled out his nice vest with a clean white shirt and a pair of slacks. Then I went back to the dresser and retrieved a white pair of socks, before digging his dress shoes out from under the bed. Then I went downstairs to find Jasper.

"Sorry Jazz, I didn't know," I apologized as I set his clothes down on the couch. I was going to dress him right there, but then Carlisle called us all to come eat breakfast: Jasper had been helping him make waffles.

So after Jasper and I ate, we washed up and I helped him get dressed. Then I went upstairs and looked through my closet for something to wear. This problem was a bit backwards from what I was used to, because I had so many nice clothes here. It was a warm day, so I decided on my lavender sundress and a white sweater to match. Then I grabbed white socks with lace and matching white sandals. Finally I retrieved a pair of underwear, but these were the only thing I grabbed from the boy's side.

Over the last three months that I had been staying with the Cullens, I had worn clothes from both the girl and the boy side, but after I tried each kind, I tended to pick a favorite. I liked the jeans and the underwear on the boy's side better, but I liked the shirts and the dresses from the girl's side. While socks and shoes I just went with whatever matched best.

The Cullens were still telling people that I was a girl named Rus, but they said that I was something called a Tom-boy, which was apparently a girl who likes some boy things. And my imaginary twin brother must be really sick, because we were still saying he was in the hospital. But in the entire three months that I had that cast on, I barely got to leave the house, so our plan of avoiding people was working.

This was going to be my first time going to Port Angeles and to a movie theater, so I wanted to look really pretty. I wanted for strangers in Port Angeles to comment on how cute I was and say they liked my dress. Therefore, after I got dressed and combed my hair, I went downstairs and asked Esme to braid it. She did and she even added cute little lavender clips to my hair.

After that, we were all ready to go and piled into Carlisle's car for the long trip to the city. Jasper, Edward, and I all sat in the back and played on the way, but I was still glad to get out and stretch my legs once we arrived. The theater was huge and cooler than I thought: they had popcorn and nachos and an arcade.

We were a little early for the movie, so Esme and Carlisle went to get snacks and gave Jasper, Edward, and me some coins to go play in the arcade. But I had only played one game before I had to go to the bathroom: we had been in the car for a long time and I had to go. I was the oldest and I was not worried about going by myself, but I had never been left with Jasper and Edward before and I was worried about leaving them alone. What if something happened to them while I was gone?
So I told Edward my dilemma, and he said that I could go and he and Jasper would be fine because we could still see where his parents were waiting in line from the arcade. He said he and Jasper had been left alone in the arcade before, so I pointed to the restroom signs and said I would be right back.

I had been to the restroom in public places before, but I had not been out of the house much since my broken leg. In fact, I had only been out four times before, and they were all quick errands, which were too short for bathroom trips. But I had done this a million times before, so I went in the men's room, pulled up my dress, and used the urinal.

I tucked myself back in and pulled down my dress before turning around to wash my hands. But when I turned around, I noticed that a big man was staring at me. I quickly walked towards the door to try to get out of here, because I knew the look on his face meant that there was going to be trouble: I could wash my hands later as long as I got away first. But he stepped in front of me and blocked my way. "Why are you wearing a dress little boy?" he asked me.

"I'm a girl. Please let me go back to my mommy and daddy," I requested while still backing up.

"I saw you just now: you pulled out your penis to take a whiz, just like every other boy. Why do your parents let you dress like that? Are they queer?"

"I don't know what you are talking about. I pee standing up because I have a birth defect, but I'm a girl. Just ask my parents, they are right outside!" I cried starting to get really worried about where this was going.

"You are a girl with a penis?" Penis was that fancy word Carlisle was always using for pee-pee.

"Y-yes. Please don't hurt me. I just got out of the hospital and I don't want to go back!"

"So if I look, everything besides the penis is going to look like a girl?"

"Yes. I have girl parts. Here, I'll show you," I said pulling up my dress as he backed me into the corner.

And that was when the door opened and I could just barely make out Carlisle's blond hair behind the big scary man. "Daddy! Help me! Please!" I yelled.

"Edward, go tell Mommy to call the police," I heard Carlisle say before the door opened and closed again. "Sir, please step away from my daughter. I'm sorry for the confusion, but we just got custody of her and this is the first time she's used the restroom in a public place. If you will just back up, I'll ask my wife to take her into the women's room."

"So you're the fag who dresses your son up like a girl?" the man asked turning around.

I probably should have ran away or at least put my dress down, but as it was, I was so scared that I just froze there in the corner of the men's room. "What have you been doing to her? Why is your dress up Rustina?" Carlisle asked me.

"Your daughter's name is Rustina? I don't think so. I think you're raising Rusty here to be a cross-dresser and that's just wrong. I should take you out and then this kid can go to a normal family and be raised as a boy!" the scary man shouted as he walked towards Carlisle.

I was really worried that Carlisle was going to get hurt, but I could not think of what I should do, so I just stood there watching. Jasper, however, had a much better grasp on what to do in these situations. "No Jasper! Come back here!" I heard Esme shout as the bathroom door opened again and Jasper entered.

"Jasper, go back to Esme now. You too Rustina, go with Jasper and I'll be right out," Carlisle said as he glanced over his shoulder at Jasper.

Carlisle probably should not have turned away from the scary man, because while he was doing so, the man stepped closer and grabbed him by the throat. I screamed, but Jasper jumped on the man's back and grabbed his neck until he let Carlisle go. Jasper kept his hold on the man's neck while his faced turned first red, then blue, and then white. The man fought at first, and I thought he was going to buck Jasper off. But Jasper just held on all the tighter.

"Let go Jasper! You can stop choking him now," Carlisle ordered when the man fell to the floor, with Jasper still on him.

"No! If I let go, he'll just get up and hurt Russell!" Jasper said while he continued to choke the man.

"Are you okay Russell? Put your dress down. Did he touch you?" Carlisle asked me.

I was too scared to know how to respond to that, so I just started crying. Carlisle came over and picked me up, before taking me out to Esme. She sat down in a chair and held me as I cried while Carlisle went back inside the restroom for about three minutes before returning with Jasper in his arms. "He's dead," Carlisle told Esme while setting Jasper down next to Edward. "Jasper's fine. I think Rus is just in shock. How long until the police arrive?"

"I called them ten minutes ago when Edward came running out," Esme replied. "It's a good thing Jasper mentioned that Rus went into the wrong restroom when he did, or that man could have really hurt her before we realized that anything was wrong."

"Did he hurt you Russell?" Carlisle asked me again, this time bending down to my level and looking me in the eyes.

"N-n-no, but he was going to. I don't want to wear dresses anymore!" I cried as I hid my face in Esme's neck.

After that, the police came and questioned us. Mostly they wanted to talk to Jasper and Carlisle, but they also asked me and Edward a few questions. They even questioned Esme. They kept coming back to questions about Jasper though, which seemed really weird to me, because the dead guy was the bad man who had tried to hurt us.

"Okay, it looks like your family was the victim in all this, but your youngest son still killed a man tonight," a guy with a badge said. "I'm gonna let you all go, except for the boy. I'm gonna have to take Jasper Whitlock in for a mental evaluation. It's standard procedure."

"He already has a psychiatrist at Forks Community Hospital, Dr. Flynn. I'll call her and she'll meet us there," Carlisle replied.

"So the boy has a past history of mental disturbances?" the policeman asked.

"No. He witnessed the deaths of his parents a few years ago. It was upsetting, so my wife and I make him go to therapy. In fact, we make all of our children go," Carlisle answered.

After that the policeman agreed to take Jasper to Carlisle's hospital, but said he was going to drive him in the back of a cruiser. Carlisle agreed, but went with them, while Esme put Edward and me back in our car and followed.

It was only the afternoon when we arrived, but I was so exhausted from the morning's events that I laid down on the couch in the waiting room and took a nap. By the time I woke up, Jasper was cleared to go home with us, but Esme said I had to go talk to Dr. Flynn while we were there.

When Dr. Flynn asked how I was doing and I answered, "I'm still really scared. I just wanna go home and have Mommy hug me until I feel better. Can we talk about it tomorrow?"

"Sure thing. It's very understandable to be feeling scared after that man tried to hurt you," she replied before letting me go back to my family.

The first thing I did when I got home was change into all boy clothes and take out my braids. Then I found a pair of kid's scissors from an arts and craft kit I had gotten for my tenth birthday and cut my hair off. I did not cut it all the way to the scalp, but I wanted it to be short like the last time I had gotten it cut.

"What did you do to your hair princess?" Esme asked when I came down the stairs with my new look.

"I don't want to be your princess anymore. I want to be your son," I said, trying not to cry.

"Of course you can be my prince, come here Rus," she said holding out her arms. "We'll go get your hair fixed tomorrow."

I spent the rest of the day like that in Esme's arms. She took me to get my hair cut straight Sunday and made me talk to Dr. Flynn about my sudden gender change on Monday. But after watching what Jasper had done to protect me, I was through being the helpless little girl: it was time for me to be Russell, the older brother again.

Next time something bad happened, I wanted to be the one to save Jasper and Edward. I hated that it had been the other way around. And once I stepped back into the role of big brother, I realized that being the big brother at the Cullen house was exactly the same as being the big sister had been: Esme and Carlisle still took care of me. I did not have to do any additional chores or have any added responsibilities. I just had to be a kid.

Dr. Flynn made me have extra-long therapy sessions all summer. But one day in August we had a breakthrough when she realized something. "You've associated being a boy with your old life of having to care for two younger siblings and being a girl with being taken care of like a child. When you realized that you could be a boy and a child, you decided to be a boy again," she said.

I did not really understand what Dr. Flynn said, but my changes had all made perfect sense to me all along, so if it now made sense to her too, I was happy. But after that she said that Rustina was my crutch, while Russell was the real me, so she even helped me get rid of all of the girl stuff left over from my time as Rustina. We gave all of my dresses to Edward and donated the rest of my girl clothes to other foster children. And she even sat down with us when I told the Cullens that I was going to be a boy from now on.

The Cullens already had a plan in place for the big switch, so Carlisle told everyone that since Rustina's leg had healed, Social Services had sent her to live with Rosalie, Lily, and Daisy, and Russell, the boy twin, had a miraculous recovery. Carlisle said that this fake recovery would be more convincing if I really was recovering when he brought Russell home from the hospital and that I just happened to need a little surgery.

Carlisle said I had something called a hernia, which was a small tear on my insides. I had never noticed it before, but he pushed on my tummy to show me where it was. It hurt really bad when he pushed, but as soon as he let go, I could not feel it again. He said that the hernia was next to my jellybeans on my insides and that it needed to be repaired before I could go to normal school and run around outside with my brothers.

Carlisle said he had put off repairing the hernia before because he knew how much I did not want to go back into the hospital and the hernia was small so it could wait. But it would be best to do the surgery before my switch to Russell, so that Carlisle could have a sick little boy to show off to support our lie. And that was just what we did.