Teenagers, especially American teenagers, can be rather cynical at times. However, when Netherfield High School Principal Ronald Hurst took the podium to speak at the school assembly wrapping up Project Safe Fire, there was a sort of tension in the air, almost an electric current, that made almost all of them pay attention suddenly. That was a highly unusual situation, especially since the entire high school was gathered in the auditorium.

"Any idea what this is about, Prez?" Chris Brandon asked his friend, Student Body President Eleanor Dashwood, in a whisper as the principal walked slowly to the podium.

"You got me, Chris. Except for the usual thank-you speeches and a couple of awards, nobody told me to expect anything."

"You'll find out soon enough," Mrs. Sarmiento said from where she sat behind them.

On the surface, nobody could expect this to be any more than an ordinary spring day in Meryton, California. The weather was sunny and balmy, already reaching 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and some of the students were in T-shirts and had stopped bringing any kind of sweater, sweatshirt, or jacket to school. It was shortly after lunchtime, and this assembly was to be expected when half the school had been involved in a seven-month project with the Fire Department, the Army, the local hospital, and Bennett & Co. Matchmakers of Meryton. Another participant, Wickman Candles, had dropped out of the project recently for reasons that were the subject of intense speculation. The school baseball team, the Panthers, had just trounced their arch-rival, the Rosales Hawks, with a stellar pitching performance from Eddie Ferraro and home runs by Brandon and Dino Markovic. Emma Woodhouse had just been named valedictorian, with Caterina Morlandi coming a close second. However, there were some murmurings around the school, and it was known that at least two students had been caught by the police for selling drugs. Another one had disappeared from the school at about the same time that Wickman had left Project Safe Fire. As Mr. Hurst prepared to speak -- amazingly, without a prepared speech in his hands -- the students and teachers noticed that his eyes were red and pained, and his expression was very serious indeed.

From the perimeter of the assembly, a group of guests watched with mixed emotions. William Darcy was there representing the Fire Department, but Major Julian Fitzwilliam of the United States Army, a very popular speaker on explosives safety, could not escape the duties of his unit to be present that day. Dr. Manuel Cuevas, a specialist in burn injuries at Meryton Hospital, stood with a serious expression on his face and his arms crossed. Jane Bennett, the head of Customer Service and Public Relations at her father's company, was looking across the room to manage at least a glimpse of Assistant Principal Charles Berkeley. Louisa Hurst, the principal's wife, stood at the back of the room, wringing her hands in anxiety as her husband carefully removed his glasses and stroked his mustache before turning the microphone on.

"This is a special day for our high school," he began in an even tone, "because today we are officially wrapping up Project Safe Fire, our cooperative project with the Meryton Fire Department, the Army, and Bennett Matchmakers. We managed to join industrial arts, chemistry, and general health and safety in a single program that led to hundreds of interesting projects from our students. I hope that you've learned something in the time that we've been working on this project with outstanding help and support. I know that I have. In fact, that's what I most wanted to talk about today.

"For twenty years, teaching and Netherfield High have been my world. I used to think I knew everything about both, but in fact I'd forgotten quite a lot, especially one basic rule: that I couldn't take care of this school, its teachers and students, if I wasn't capable of taking care of myself. And I truly wasn't. I wasn't honest with myself and I didn't pay attention. That's why this was such a difficult year. I could mention Jason Willoughby and William Colman's arrest on narcotics charges, or several other unfortunate events, but the most important thing of all was that a man I thought I could trust, who was a partner in our project, was implicated in an attempt to burn down our school, and even tried to recruit some of your fellow students into this scheme. I wasn't aware of any of this; I wasn't paying attention to anything, because I thought I could still be a good teacher and principal even though I was completely wrapped up in my own problems.

"I'm an alcoholic. That's right. I drank too much, during the day and every day, and then hid it from everyone. I'm telling you today because you, the students of Netherfield High School, are the people that I care about the most, and I don't want any of you to repeat the mistake that I made. I wasn't honest with myself, with my colleagues, with my family, or with you."

In two minutes, Mr. Hurst had achieved something that nobody in Meryton would ever have considered possible, and most of all never expected from him. He had brought an entire high school to silence. His wife Louisa was blinking back tears. Charles Berkeley looked at his brother-in-law and boss with what he hoped seemed to be encouragement. William Darcy wore a distant, introspective expression on his face, thinking about his recent arguments with Elizabeth Bennett, the woman that he desired more than any he had known in his life. Unfortunately, she wasn't there because he was. At least Charles and Jane had gotten back together and Elizabeth could stop resenting him for interfering in their relationship. Geoff Wickman was also out of the picture, because Darcy had convinced him to move to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, one of the wettest places on the West Coast, and enroll in a program to treat his pyromania. In fact, on that fateful evening, Darcy had even performed CPR on Elizabeth's misguided sister Lydia, effectively saving her life, and brought her home in secret, but even that wasn't enough to make Elizabeth want to see him.

"That's one thing none of you should ever forget," Mr. Hurst continued, "you need to be honest with yourself. You need to admit it to yourself when you're in danger, when you lose control of yourself or come close to that. I didn't, and that's why for all practical purposes, this school didn't have a real principal for this entire year. You will now, because I'm resigning today to enter a treatment program, and Assistant Principal Charles Berkeley is going to assume my duties for the rest of the year, until the School District names a replacement for me. He will take better care of you than I could; he even took better care of me than I did by convincing me that I should finally face my problem. He did a wonderful job coordinating Project Safe Fire for the school, and I know he's a great friend to all his students and fellow teachers. You will be in better hands than mine from now on. I just need to thank my wife, Louisa, who is here today, for her unrelenting support, for believing in me when nobody else, except for her and Charles, would any more. Charles, you will take over for me now." The principal turned off the microphone and walked down the steps without bowing his head, but without looking at anyone either. At the back of the room, Louisa, already in tears, hugged him and said "I love you, Ron. That took a lot of courage." Charlotte Lucas, the school's dutiful secretary, escorted them to their car and offered to drive them home, since both husband and wife were clearly distraught.

"No, Charlotte, I want to go to St. Irenaeus' Clinic now," Hurst said, "I want to get started right away. I have an appointment with Dr. Perdomo."

"I'll take you in my car," Charlotte said instantly.

Back inside the assembly room, Charles had taken charge. His boyish blond good looks, his eager smile, and his engaging manner with people from all walks of life had made him the most popular teacher in the county. When he taught the novel Good-bye, Mr. Chips, his students had immediately nicknamed him "Mr. Chip" and the name had stuck, especially after he brought all his classes chocolate chip cookies the next day.

"Thank you, Ron," he said, although Mr. Hurst had already left. "This is a huge responsibility for me. But I know that we all want the same thing -- a school that we're proud of, and believe me, we're all going to work for it." The applause broke out spontaneously. "That's what we did working on Project Safe Fire, that's what we did beating the Bearcats and Hawks, and that's what we can manage again and again. My job is to help all of you be the best students that you possibly can. Help me be a good principal too, because I've never done this before, but with your help, maybe I can manage." A few chuckles and snickers showed that the mood was less tense.

"I want to thank everyone that was involved in our project: Bennett & Co. Matchmakers of Meryton, the doctors and nurses at Meryton Hospital, the Fire Department, represented here today by my friend William Darcy, and Major Fitzwilliam and his fellow officers from the Army, who expanded our project to include explosives. I hope all of you have learned something from this experience, and may even have enjoyed it. I know, school is never completely enjoyable -- after all, it's a kind of work -- but I hope that you'll have some pleasant memories as you look back on this time." This time he even managed to make some of the students laugh with his honesty. After all, this was the man who told his class to imagine the warriors in Homer's Iliad talking like modern-day gang members.

"Personally, what I enjoyed most in this project was making many new friends among the people we worked with and hearing everyone's insights. I've been told that some of your ideas on this project are being adopted by the Town Council as we speak. Make no mistake about it -- this project has really changed things in Meryton and made people know much more, or be more careful about fires, explosives, and their health.

"It's also changed my life. Through this project, I met a truly special person, whose intelligence, sincerity, and dedication I came to admire. As I got to know her better through our cooperation, starting with her visits to the school and our field trips, I realized that I was in the presence of..."

Don't let him say ‘an angel', Darcy thought, those teenagers would laugh him out of the school. And then the shock caught up with him: is Chip really going to do this?

".. someone that I cared about very deeply, who even without knowing it, succeeded in changing my life and making me a better person. Jane Bennett, you bring out the best in me and I want to share the rest of my life with you. Will you please marry me?"

Even in the most surprising situations, high school students are still high school students. Mr. Berkeley's surprise announcement was greeted with applause, whistles, stomping of feet, and cries of "Yeah, marry him, Jane!" and "Go Mr. Chip!" That went on for about a minute, until Jane walked through the central aisle and silenced the entire crowd with a brief wave of her hand. With her well-modulated alto voice, she called out "Yes, Charles, I will!" and brought on an enormous round of applause, which became even more intense after Charles jumped down from the podium, embraced her and kissed her passionately, and then carried her up the steps. "You are all invited to our wedding!" his voice boomed over the loudspeakers. After that, there was nothing to do but wait for all the applause to die down, which took a few minutes. Jane stood confidently at Charles' side, wearing an elegant navy blue dress, with her straight blond hair hanging down to her elbows.

After a semblance of order was restored, Charles spoke again, still holding Jane's hand. "Would any of our project partners like to say anything?" Jane briefly took the microphone and said "I love you Charles -- and I love Netherfield High School, and I loved working with all of you this year!" More applause followed. Dr. Cuevas declined to speak with a polite shake of the head, while Fire Brigade Chief Darcy only said "Mr. Berkeley, I don't think anyone could top what you said."

"As happy as I feel now, kids, I would like to declare a national holiday, but I just can't do that," the happy assistant principal said, "so now we'll have to end this assembly and go back for the last classes of the day. Just remember, my door is open for everyone and you can come talk to me about anything; I'll respect you and I won't judge you for it. By the way, what Ron -- Mr. Hurst -- just did now was very brave, and I hope you'll keep him in your thoughts for the rest of the year. It takes a lot of courage for anyone to admit his mistakes and the more serious they are, the harder it is. If you don't know that yet, I'm sure you'll figure it out later. Thanks for being here, everyone, thanks for your work on the project and your support, and now it's back to class, everyone!" In spite of the last part of the sentence, everyone applauded once again. Mr. Berkeley's tenure as acting principal had clearly started with a bang.

As the assembly dispersed, William Darcy discreetly stepped out the back of the room. He wanted to find Charles and Jane and congratulate them, but what he preferred was a chance to do that privately, without seven hundred teenagers around. Fortunately, this was his day off from the Fire Department, so he could stick around until school was out, and then visit the Principal's Office. That left him with about an hour and a half to kill. Should he walk to the office, go to the school library and find a book to read, sit in his car listening to some music, or get a cup of coffee somewhere and then come back? As he thought that over, a young woman with curly black hair wearing a light gray business suit made the decision for him by walking in his direction. It was clear that she wasn't trying to walk past him or avoid him: as she came closer, her steps became less hurried and more measured. William decided to take the first step by giving her a slight smile.

"Hi, Elizabeth," he said, holding out his hand. "You just missed the marriage proposal of the century. Charles and Jane are absolutely glowing. She said yes to him in front of the whole school!"

"That's wonderful!" she said, also smiling. "I'll have to go congratulate them!" She removed her sunglasses, and William once again could gaze upon the deep brown eyes that had charmed him since they first met. "William, I knew you would be here and I wanted to talk to you before you left. Can you just wait for five minutes so I can see Jane and Charles first?"

"Try the principal's office," William said, "Hurst resigned to go into treatment and put Charles in charge." Elizabeth quickly thanked him, waved, and almost ran to the office. It couldn't have happened any other way: the affectionate and enthusiastic nature of the two eldest Bennett sisters was legendary.

When Elizabeth came back, after fifteen, not five minutes, William was still waiting patiently. However, the halls were crowded with high school students going from class to class or taking a quick break by the lockers. "Let's go take a walk," he suggested, because he wanted to speak with her in private. He took her arm, without any opposition from her, and led her in the direction of the grassy fields out past the gym.

Two and a half hours later, when the school baseball team arrived for practice, that was where they found them, talking calmly to each other as they wandered across the outfield. It was still too early to speak of love, but not too late to declare peace and friendship.