Thread: The Academy (BurningWillows & Georgie_Leech)

On the surface, Pennington's Preparatory College is an ordinary, albeit exclusive, preparatory school in the northern USA. Though it offers a few undergraduate programs, mostly for business-related majors, Pennington's has a reputation for producing the best and brightest students for any field. Students who have taken courses at Pennington's move on to other universities and colleges with the skills needed to survive and even thrive in competitive and rigorous environments. They become creative architects, brilliant scientists, cunning lawyers, shrewd businessmen. Enrollment is largely invitation only the philosophy of Pennington's is that only the best steel makes the best swords, and that they are the forge to shape it. Students from across North America fly in to learn in its prestigious halls. This is all a lie. Or at least, a half-truth at best. In reality, Pennington's is one of the few schools to cater exclusively to the Supernatural World, and will accept any and all such applicants. Indeed, they actively seek out such students, and its reputation among the Supernatural is a constant social pressure to send your children there when they come of age. Known to it's students simply as The Academy, the school teaches them the skills needed to remain secret and secure in an increasingly monitored and interconnected world. Witches and Warlocks practise controlling the spirits Werewolves learn to manage their bestial urges Vampires are taught how navigate in a sunlit world. Above all, the students must demonstrate the skills to remain hidden and discrete in modern society. The Academy prides itself perhaps rightly so as one of the major reasons that the Internet has yet to reveal the secret kept so long from mundane civilisation. It's the start of the new school year, which means that things are unusually busy on campus. The returning students meet up after being away with family for weeks, exchanging teary-eyed hugs, back slapping, and otherwise reconnecting. The new students are milling about, trying to find where their dorms are, or how to navigate their class schedule. The Supernatural World is not the most populous, and since they come from all corners of the continent, most have no social connections already in place. Inbred caution and nervousness lead to little communication between the students, though volumes can be read in a glance. Is that student glaring at you, and they'll be your new enemy? Or are they merely squinting through the crowd, trying to read the signs temporarily put up on the walls? The result is a chaotic mess, but slowly, the students learn where they're supposed to be going. By 1 o'clock, the halls are mostly empty save for a few stragglers, and most students are busy unpacking in their new dorms. A scratchy announcement comes over the intercom system. This is a reminder that the opening ceremonies will be taking place in one hour. All new students should proceed to Auditorium 1A in the first basement floor. We will begin at precisely 2 PM. Being late on the first day would be a poor way to make a first impression. Chancellor Augustina Warwick's calm voice had the sound of practised repetition to it, but it was easy to tell that disappointing her before classes had even begun would be a poor choice.