Ada Lovelace, a (very) young mouse with big plans, was attending her first day of class at the local Steamclan academy. Since she had first heard of this thing called "school," she was very excited to be attending...learning? Books? Math? Science? Amazing! Perfect! Genius! She was eager to meet her classmates, who would hopefully share the same passions she already possessed.Of course, she was just weaned, only a few weeks old, and was entering the mousey equivalent of preschool. Apparently no one had noticed her already formidable intellect, but in her large family, it was a wonder if her parents could even tell most of the kids apart, let alone notice their individual talents. Somehow Ada had still made it to the school, but then, the mouse version of school was just "show up and learn stuff," so...as long as she knew where to go, it was fine.
The school was, incidentally, located inside an old high school nearby, though the building was no longer in use--the school district used a few rooms for administrative purposes, but by-and-large, not many humans ventured into the rest of the school. The building was over a century old, though, and considered historic, so nobody had torn the place down. The mice had built their own school in an abandoned science classroom on the second floor: climb up a drainpipe, sneak through a conveniently loose window, make your way to the floor, and the cupboards under the various science tables had been converted into "classrooms" for various levels of education, from basic education to the equivalent of high school. A few mice even used the room for their own academic projects, though most made their way to the Steamclan guild headquarters to continue their research and pursue their careers.
Ada sat eagerly in the preschool classroom, looking around while she waited for class to start. She was a bit early, being so excited to come, but she was curious about what new wonders awaited her. Not many of her classmates were there, so she wandered over to what looked like some shelves and examined their contents: random bits of cardboard, some pieces of a wooden construction set, and a bouncy ball? What? She frowned. Where were the books? Where was the science? This was not what she signed up for! But she pulled down the pieces of the construction set and started putting them together in a shape suspiciously reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower, pondering petulantly whether this "school" thing was actually going to be enjoyable.
