Add fields to CMS articles

[firebrand media]

I need to pull "featured" articles to a home page.

I was advised:

Best way would be:
-adding a custom variable to articles. Featured? Yes/No.
Then you can edit an article and toggle this variable.
- Then make an widget that grabs the articles with featured variable yes. Then you can display them in a slideshow or whatever means you see fit.

I'm new to serious vBulletin hacking so I have a bunch of questions:

• How does one one add a "custom variable" to an article? These terms are too generic to yield useful searches. I don't see anything in the UI, so I'm assuming I need to add some code, but where?
• How do I access these custom variables? Do I need to do something to the database, or is that all handled?

I'm certainly not afraid to code, I just need some documentation on how this stuff works.