Hextra Credit Premise

In the town of Danvers, Massachusetts, a combination school has been getting some attention and accreditation. Covering grades from elementary up to high school between three six-story buildings, King's Bishop Academy has quickly become THE school to have your children attend in the state of Massachusetts and, to a degree, beyond as well. Students who graduate the Academies have started to become sought after by big name colleges and universities, including the "Big Three" of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. With the alacrity that this formerly no-name, privately-funded institution gained such popularity, one would naturally think there might have been strange dealings going on.

And, understandably, the press fell upon the school like vultures seeking a tale of blackmail or pocket-lining, of corruption of the highest order to explain this sudden success. However, all they were met with were strict teachers teaching the curriculum to the students to produce viable, knowledgeable students into society. They could find nothing that they could pin on the school or its principal – one Quincy Maximilian Yes – who had personally funded the construction of the Academies and bank-rolled every instructor on its campus.

That was not to say that there was nothing strange with King's Bishop, just not in the way that the media was so fond of drudging up and casting before the world in a bid for ratings. In fact, the truth was of a sort that would be hard to believe if one did not see it for themselves. The only hint to the outside world lay within the placement exams held every year – a seemingly innocuous document that tested the students' progress through the curriculum. Hidden within the pseudo-language segments that looked like something out of the military's Defense Language Aptitude Battery... was a language that wasn't quite so fake. And it allowed the test-givers to detect those who had the potential.

The potential to wield magic; to become witches and warlocks. Those who show this ability, either natural or hereditary, are soon contacted in secret. To attend secret classes hidden within the standard curriculum. To nurture and control that ability under the orders of the Principal himself. All the while keeping the appearances of normal, everyday students – a part of the same mass that fights to make it onto the illustrious Principal's List and gain the benefits that such accomplishments provide: Glory, esteem, power.

Find it hard to believe that such things actually exist? But think about it: where better to hide a school that would delve into the Dark Arts than in the very state, the very county where the infamous Salem Witch Trials took place back in the colonial days? Such is the very essence of hiding in plain sight, after all. And as for the reasons why the Principal seeks to develop and nurture witches and warlocks in secret? The only one who knows that is Principal Yes himself – and he isn't speaking up anytime soon, unless you can reach that number one spot on his list.

Come now, step through the doors of King's Bishop Academy, and enter a world where academics and arcana mix. Where the choices you make will mean the difference between power and esteem... or fading forgotten into obscurity. And where being the top of your grade means something much more than a certificate and pat on the back. Looks like someone's going to need to do a little... Hextra Credit.