Alice and I pushed as quickly and gently as possible through the throng gathered around the uproar.

On one side of the hall, Emmett attempted to hold Edward back, using all his force. Edward wasn't in a striking position, but his eyes suggested intent. On the other side of the hall, the locker just left of Mathias's head had its overly painted, red door hanging off, nearly bent in two, the clear indentation of a hand captured in a metal mold. The observers didn't know what to think. Cheer the fight, or turn and flee?

But what shocked me was not that my father had lashed out at the boy I found myself mysteriously attractive to. What took me off guard was how unfazed Mathias seemed. He should be cowering, but he glared back at my father with the courage of a bull. For a moment I considered how brave he was. The next instant, I was disgusted at his moxie: humans didn't take on vampires and survive. Foolish, stupid, breakable, ignorant human boy. My father, however, should know better

"How are you planning for us to explain away this?" I mentally yelled at him, moving my eyes to the broken locker. "Is this what you call dealing with it?"

Edward's amber eyes focused only on Mathias, undeterred by my mental screaming. Alice sprang forward from my side to assist Emmett. She pushed her forehead gently into Edward's chin and stroked the sides of his face gently.

"Think of Bella," she murmured. "Think of Carlisle. Think of us all. Don't mess this up for us. He's just a boy."

I couldn't be sure she was getting through to him. His countenance remained just as seething and plotting. I looked between Mathias and Edward. How could this human just stand there like his life was not in imminent peril? All it would take was a little easing of Emmett's restraint for Edward to break free. He could kill Mathias and half of the students nearby before any of them realized well enough to run. No, there must be another barrier for him to get through; a barrier that he would not cross, no matter if it meant death itself.

I threw myself in front of Mathias's body, close as I could get without touching him, facing Edward with my eyes locked squarely to his. My hands shot out in either direction, creating a shield.

"Sticking up for my honor, milady?" Mathias whispered from behind me. The cool heat of his breathe on my ear made goose bumps travel down my arms. I blocked out the sensation before Edward could sense it. Emmett looked at me with complete approval. This was the right thing to do, even if being defended by a girl, I knew, would hurt the human male ego.

"If you were wise, you wouldn't say or think a thing," I warned him over my shoulder in as gentle a whisper as I could imagine human ears would be able to detect.

Edward's muscles eased, and Alice began to back away. Emmett echoed the movement. Mathias leaned away from the lockers and began to push me gently out of the way. I allowed him to think he was moving me. What was he doing though, approaching Edward across the hallway as though nothing had happened?

Both the philosophy teacher, Mr. Chui, and the sociology teacher, Ms. Kitchner, stood in the hall on the periphery of the face off.

"What is going on here?" Mr. Chui demanded, casting accusatory glances between the five of us. "Mr. Cullen, this is no way to make a good impression on your first day. We have a zero tolerance policy."

"My fault, Mr. Chui," Mathias volunteered. Even Edward was surprised by this declaration. Most teenage boys would be on the defensive. Mathias's decisions seemed all wrong, the opposite of what most humans would do.

Ms. Kitchner's voice was incredulous. "Matt?"

Mathias strode the remaining distance of the hall to face Edward and stuck out his hand. "My apologies. What I said was rude and presumptive. You had every right to act the way you did, and I hope we can put this incident behind us immediately."

What the hell? I had listened to Mathias's chatter with Carl. He wouldn't have had opportunity to say anything to Edward. Moreover, he hadn't said anything. Whatever set off Edward had to be in his head. How could Mathias have known my father could hear that?

Edward sighed and took the hand offered to him. I could see how firm his hand shake was… a little too firm and I wondered a moment that Mathias didn't cry out.

"Apology accepted," Edward hissed through a clenched expression. He made sure to bare his teeth widely as he spoke. He was instinctively giving warning to Mathias that he was still not completely off the hook. For the first time, I saw Mathias shutter for the briefest of moments.

"Yes, well. Still…." Mr. Chui interrupted. "All the rest of you, clear out. This is over."

Ms. Kitchner acted as crowd control, gently nudging along the audience. As the students began to disperse, Mr. Chui 's face resolved into decision.

"As satisfied as I am that you two are now acting maturely, I can't let this go unpunished. Fighting is grounds for suspension. We should speak to the headmaster."

"Mr. Chui, send him to detention. That will be enough. After all, this is Mr. Cullen's first day and you wouldn't want to mar his record so quickly."

Mathias's moxie; that's a term I would clearly being using a lot. Did he really think a teacher would defer to his demands? I knew members of cliques and popular kids could be powerful social forces in high schools, but from my observation, Mathias was neither of those. Or did that fact that his guardian, Moira, was also a teacher give him airs?

To my surprise, Mr. Chui relented. "I guess you're right, Mathias, if Mr. Cullen concurs?"

Edward nodded. It was an easy resolution to a potential mine field of concern. Only… At least twenty students had just witnessed my father crush a steel-framed locker with a weak slap of his palm. A whole week in detention would not cover that fact.

"What's going on here?"

Through the stream of retreating students, Moira strolled, casting a suspicious gaze between my family and her ward. The smells of sandalwood and rose water permeated the air. Again, I found myself distracted at that small aspect of her smell so familiar, but not quite nameable.

"Everything's fine, mother," Mathias stated. "Just a misunderstanding between Ed and me."

It happened too quickly for the humans to comprehend. Even Mathias seemed oblivious. But I saw. The flash of complete terror. I knew Alice, Emmett and Edward had taken note of it, too. We were all looking at Moira, of course. If Moira was about, you had to look at her. She composed herself so quickly; I didn't have time to dwell. Her eyes shifted from Mathias to the crumpled locker face. Apparently, Mr. Chui had begun to wonder over it as well.

"How in the heck did…" he was muttering, pulling his hand over the metal to see if there was an inherent flaw that would have allowed for such damage by a simple slap. I saw Alice's and Emmett's anxious expressions, and Edward's realization that he may have gone too far. Moira jumped in front of Mr. Chui, blocking him from further investigation, pulling Mathias along with her.

"How many times have I said it, Mathias?" she chirped. Mr. Chui jolted back from the enthusiasm in her voice. "This is why the ancients used stone and wood. Why we still build things from wood these days whenever possible. Metal plates are just not structurally sound. If you stumble on that weak point where it can't support itself, it just buckles."

"Don't do this," Mathias whispered in Moira's ear.

I knew Mr. Chui's ears a few feet away were too weak to make out his words. We had no such issues. Apparently, neither did Moira.

"I must," she mouthed quickly. "Just get him out of here quickly afterwards."

"Alice?" Emmett murmured. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," she replied, as dumbfounded as I was.

Mr. Chui, ambivalent to the conversations going on around him, still stared at the locker in disbelief. Moira turned and charmed him with her smile.

"Observe."

She turned to the locker bay and ran her hand over the adjacent face plate. Her heartbeat, usually constant and steady, suddenly became erratic, racing out of control. It was too fast to be an adrenaline rush. Was she having an anxiety attack? If her heart didn't slow, it would explode.

Then, silence.

At the same moment that her heart stopped, her hand drew back only a few inches, and plowed flat fisted in the metal face. The metal sheet crumbled effortlessly and fell off its hinges to the ground, throwing echoes up and down the corridor of the hall. Chasing the echoes with my eyes, I saw the rest of our family turning up the far side of the corridor. Rosalie, Bella and Jasper recognized immediately from the expressions of their mates that something had happened.

Something was happening.

"You see, Mr. Chui, just like she said, structurally unsound," Mathias said, putting his arms around the teacher's shoulders and dragging away. "Maybe we should alert the headmaster. A little horsing around in the hall way and disaster could be afoot."

"I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes," Mr. Chui laughed, shaking his head. "Yes, we should talk with him. This shouldn't be left unchecked. Mr. Cullen, detention is in room 221. "

Mathias continued to coax away the overwhelmed man, who was nearly giddy with the demonstration he had just seen. As they turned the corner, the others reached us. We found ourselves alone: the Cullens, the Hales, and Moira.

"Moira?" I stepped forward timidly. Her pulse had been stopped for nearly 15 seconds. How long could a human continue without a heartbeat?

"Renesmee, careful."

Jasper pulled me back. Emmett followed suit and pulled Rosalie and Bella behind him. Edward leapt out in front Emmett.

"What are you!" Edward demanded.

"Shhhh." Moira winced, flattening her palms against the bay of intact lockers. I could hear little shallow gasps emanating from her mouth, accented by hints of high-pitched flecking. It sounded like she was suppressing the urge to cry out in terror.

"Edward, she's in immense pain," Jasper cried. "What is she thinking? Is she going to attack?"

"She's only thinking 'retreat' over and over. "

I couldn't believe they were all just standing around as a woman before us was about to die. "We have to call for an ambulance. She's having some kind of stroke."

We all took a step back in shock when we heard it: A soft thump, followed a few seconds later by another glub-glub. A brief pause, and a quickly racing hum of another human heart in our midst besides mine was clear. Moira's focused breaths were the only movement she made for several seconds. With every inhalation, her pulse grew more steady.

When finally she did turn around, we all saw the same shocking thing. For the smallest sliver of a moment, her eye color had shifted. Gone were the creamy emeralds, replaced by copper onyx. Her complexion, as if dusted in snow before, was deepening again to her lovely natural shade of light olive. A few more breathes, and she seemed restored to her former self.

"Not possible," Edward gasped. "How did you… What did you…"

"Mr. Cullen." Her strength had clearly been zapped, based on the soft, cracking quality of her voice. "The less we know of each other's secrets, the safer we all are. If you can promise to keep your temper in check, particularly around Mathias, I will keep yours from becoming public knowledge. Please, allow me my privacy in this. We both understand how easily things could slip out to unwelcomed ears."

Edward simply nodded.

"Now, let's not squander what this little charade had gained us," she continued. "I think you have a detention to serve. You'd better run along before you're missed. The rest of you, good day."

As Moira turned up the hall to leave, she passed just inches from me, smiling conspiratorially. Her scent filled my senses again, only the mystery aspect was blazingly clear this time. I had failed to recognize it not because it was so unattainable. Rather, it was because it was a scent that was so common to me I hadn't even recognized it as something that could be unique.

Venom.