Chapter 1
Kirin looked over her tribe from her platform. After eating so much sweets at the major party last night for reaching 100 mice, she was majorly hyper and just felt like jumping from wall to wall, not trying to maintain order in her tribe. Still, as the leader of the Qt Tribu, she knew she had to make sure the mice didn’t go crazy.

“May I have your attention!” she yelled to the crazy jumble of mice below her. Kirin had a soft voice, so not many mice heard her. Her assistant, Heida, did however and walked up to the high platform.
“Mice of Qt Tribu! Please listen to what Kirin has to say!” Heidi hollered. The mice immediately fell silent.
“Thank you… today I would like to thank all of you for staying loyal to this tribe,” stuttered Kirin as the mice snickered below. Everyone knew that in this tribe, not many people stayed for a long time. Some mice only have 1000 cheese and think that they are already “too good” for the tribe and move to a better one.

Kirin finished the speech and returned to her room for some peace and quiet. She grabbed a book and thought about what she heard some of the members say. Oh only if they knew how many friendships were formed in here, she thought, they would understand what it was really like to be in this tribe. And with that, she dove into her book, blocking out the sound of the new players loudly practicing their skills below her.

~

Ding! The dinner bell clanked and Kirin put down her book to head to the dining hall. She sat down at her chair and looked around the massive room. Little cookers ran around the room dashing left and right, handing dishes to all the hungry mice. They were mostly brown and tan, but there was one specific mouse that caught Kirin’s eye.

Lia. She showed off her glistening black and white fur, her neon colored hair, even her pricey pink diamond tail decoration. Kirin didn’t even know that diamonds came in pink, but she still despised Lia. Lia was a snotty prep, and only wanted power. Once Kirin had made the mistake of giving her more power, but never would she do that again. Only looking at her made Kirin sick. She tried to not look at Lia in the duration of dinner, wishing to go back to her room and maybe even get some cheese.

But that time didn’t come. Before she even got up, a large shamanmobile crashed into a window.
“Couldn’t you have used the door!?” Heidi screamed from the other side of the room. The flashy mouse that walked out didn’t even look her way.
“Lia Derisson?” he called. Everyone parted for Lia to go up to him. Strutting down the “aisle” like a supermodel would, Lia went up to the mouse.
“Your application into the tribe has been accepted,” said the mouse. Lia gasped and they went with him into the shamanmobile. Kirin let out a sigh of relief. Finally Lia would be be off her hands and she wouldn’t ever see her again, as Lia finally was in that tribe that she always bragged she would be in. Kirin only looked up to see them crash the door down.

“That wasn’t what I meant!!!” Heidi yelled as Kirin walked back to her room and laid down on her bed. I’ll never see her again, she thought. Never, ever again.

Chapter 2
Melissa sat on the edge of her bed and looked at the paper in her paws. It was a pamphlet for the Transformice Football Championship game. She sighed, thinking how her only friend was playing there right now. In the “pro” tribe, she didn’t have many people to talk to. She didn’t have many people to talk to even in the whole world of Transformice, so she might as well stay here, where she at least had a nice place to sleep. Thinking of sleep, Melissa drifted off into her nice, fluffy bed.

The sound of mice cheering and celebrating outside woke Melissa up. She flung open her curtain and looked outside. There was a few hundred mice, and she didn’t know most of them. Going to see what the commotion was about, she skillfully corner-jumped to a nearby tree and slid down the tree trunk. Then she walked over to the growing crowd and pushed her way to the center, as random mice spam-yelled “OMG WTF NOOB” at her, but she didn’t mind them. Instead, she walked straight to the center and tapped a mouse’s shoulder.

“Hey Jay. Congrats on the game,” said Melissa. Jay turned around, surprised.
“Oh, hi. You’re like 20 minutes late and missed everything exciting. All the food has already been destroyed,” he replied with a wink, while signing other mice’s things.
“I really don’t care,” she muttered, blushing. Although Melissa looked like a petite, feminine mouse, she could probably eat more most mice. “I’ll be in vanilla2 if you need me.”
“You sure you don’t want to stay?”
“Nope. Bye,” she waved and ran off.

To be honest, Melissa hated football, so she never went to any of Jay’s games or celebrations. She never gave him anything but a ‘congratulations’ whenever he won. “Am I a bad mouse?” she thought. Then she realized she was over-thinking it too much and went back to focusing on getting some firsts.

Melissa quickly wall-jumped over the chocolate wall, got the cheese, and went back into the hole easily. After cleaning the dirty chocolate from her fur with the hose in the mouse hole, she sat there, waiting for the next round to come. A second, third, and fourth mouse came rushing in, also all covered with the chocolate. She peered outside, and counted the mice. There were 26 mice, why did only four mice get back? Then she saw the many mice, including the shaman, talking to each other quietly. The mice that weren’t in that little ‘group’ were crying because they couldn’t wall jump.

“SHAMMY HELPP,” begged one mouse.
“NUB SHAMAN! BAN!” protested another.
“SHAM WTH” a third one yelled. The shaman then halfheartedly spawned a balloon and it popped, leaving them still stranded there. Melissa didn’t really care, but this was really suspicious. When the next map, map 0, played, she started to walk up to the circle of mice. A little mouse stood in front of them.
“What is this?” demanded Melissa.
“Uh… uhm…” the little mouse stuttered in fear and stepped to the side. Melissa went over to the group and stared at them.
“What is this?” she commanded again, this time a bit more loudly and aggressive. The mice just sat there, staring at her, and started whispering again. A few seconds later, Melissa felt herself being teleported to a weird, lifeless room…
Room *Bad girls.

Chapter 3
Melissa shivered to think of room *Bad Girls. The inside was cold and lifeless, even though it was decorated with the faded objects. Sure, she had been there a few times before, but that was when she was new and annoyed everyone. Once she had mistakenly joined the so-called professional tribe, a life of comfort was what she was used to from then on. As Melissa walked home, she wondered what the group of mice were talking about. In the past, she had only seen a few mice whispering to each other, and she assumed they were talking about useless things. After all, they never banned her, or anyone she could remember. This time though, the mice seemed much more serious… and probably even conspiring something. She thought about what it could be until tripped on a leftover can in front of her tribe. Then it hit her.
“I’ve got it!” she said to no one, and threw open her tribe’s door. She dashed around corners and down into the basement, where some mice were also playing lagball. She ran past them, only bumping into a few.
“Sorry!” called Melissa to the mice that were glaring at her. She went down the hallways until she reached a door. Nothing was special about it, except a small blue tag with the words “Tribe Forum - Mice of Times” written on it. She put her paw on the doorknob and turned it slowly. She slipped in undetected, and closed the door quietly. To her surprise, there weren’t many mice, only a few looking at some kind of tribe contest information. That was to her advantage, because she didn’t want mice poking into her business. Melissa wanted to find information, any information, on what the group of whispering mice could be about.

Her tribe forums were organized into shelves of binders and books. They would have a title on the front so the members knew what the contents were about, and anyone could write a reply in the blank pages. Melissa searched through the books, only giving them half a glance before placing them back on the shelf. After what seemed like half an hour, she was majorly annoyed at what she couldn’t find.
“This is hopeless!” she groaned, throwing the book into the air. This caused the mice there to give her a suspicious look, and she smiled sheepishly. Just then, a small piece of paper fluttered out from the book. Melissa grabbed it, and read it over.
“nexT meeetinf in vanilla2. allmost enof cheez 4 a neew tribe!!! xDDD bring all ur stuf plz” was what it said. She grabbed a pen and ripped out another sheet of paper from the book and wrote down a much more cleaner version, just in case she one day can’t decipher what it says anymore. Both papers were rolled up and tied into her hair with a ribbon. Then she got up and walked to a pile of empty books. “Couldn’t hurt to learn more about this,” thought Melissa as she picked up a fat marker and wrote all the info inside. She then stuck it on a shelf and started to exit the forums with her secret way, glancing side to side to see if anyone was watching before opening the door. When she started to go back down the hallways, she thought she heard the quick scampering of feet. But peering around the corner, there was only a evil-looking metal door that looked like it hasn’t been touched in years. She started to go down the aisle, but with the flickering light and with the puddles from leaks everywhere, it was very silent… and quite scary. She regretted her choice and ran back to the main hallway, and back beyond the lagball room, splashing the dirty water everywhere, including her own fur and hair.

When Melissa got up to the first floor and started to trudge to the bathroom, she heard a familiar laugh. She immediately spun around and glared at him.
“You.. you look hilarious,” said Jay, falling onto the floor with laughter. She looked at him angrily, and stomped away. Once she got back upstairs and cleansed herself, she sat down in her bed and looked in her mirror. “What has gotten into me?”, she thought and sighed.

The next few days passed quickly as she checked the book for anything important. After what happened previously, she didn’t even bother taking her secret way. There was nothing anyways, except a “lol, stop overreacting” from one of her tribe mates. Each day, her spirits dropped when no one had replied. She tried to ignore others, and didn’t even go to meals but ate her small secret stash of cheese. Then, one day, she heard her tribe’s leader, Siiri, announce for everyone to come to the tribe’s gathering room for a new member’s welcoming. It had been a long time since there was someone new. In the end, she reluctantly went to the gathering room, and tried to avoid eye contact with Jay as best as she can. She sat down as far away from him as she could, and listened to what Siiri had to say. Apparently the new mouse’s name was Lia, and she had previously been in the tribe Qt Tribu, which was confusing to Melissa because she thought it was a noob-ish tribe.

A few hours later, she decided to check the forums again, sure that there would be nothing new. But there was still a little hope. Holding her breath, she picked up the book and flipped to the latest page, which was also the first. She glanced down and saw a new post.

The new girl knew quite a bit what was going on.

Chapter 4

Siiri was bored. Bored and annoyed, mostly at how much her tribe has been bugging her. She shut herself in her room and threatened that if anyone dared bothered her she would cannon them all the way to bootcamp and beyond. Sure enough, no one even went close to her room, but that made her bored as heck. She sat down at her desk, yawning and looking at her possessions. Nothing interesting, except a dusty photo. She picked it up, and saw that it was a picture of when she won her first Team Race for Junior Mice. With her paw, she wiped off the dust-covered part swiftly to uncover what was underneath. There she was, holding the large first place trophy with another mouse - Theodore.

It was Siiri’s first cheese gathering. She ran around the home for very young mice, giggling and yelling, “I’m not gonna be a baby mouse anymore, yeah!” Her instructor told her to calm down and she brushed her fur. Siiri could simply not sit still, and once her instructor finished brushing her fur, she jumped up and threw her belongings into the waist bag she would be bringing. A notebook, a pen, a rock to remember the home by, and a small piece of cheese so she won’t get hungry. Her instructor called her and led her to somewhere she’d never seen before. There was a door, and the instructor flung it open. A massive swirling thing - a portal, was there. The instructor whispered in her ear, “Don’t forget what I taught you.” And with that, she sent Siiri into the world of Transformice.

She woke up with a groan. Where was her home? She sat up and looked around. Many mice of every color were running around, collecting the cheese. This must be Transformice, she thought as she stared at them. A single mouse with extravagant markings walked up to her.
“Are ya gonna move ‘r not?” he asked Siiri, with his paws on his hips and a frown. She stared at him blankly, her brain processing why a mouse with such a great pattern would talk to her. Then he sighed and started to spawn a cannon. That was when she realized what this mouse has. He was the shaman! Before the cannon fully spawned and knocked her out, she ran to the crowd of mice, who were chatting. She approached three mice what were snickering… at her. But young, naive Siiri did not understand.
“Hi guys! I’m Siiri! Who are you?” she asked with a goofy smile. The three mice just laughed at her.
“Haha! Get outta my face. I’m going to barf if I look at you!” said one.
“Yeah! You ugly noob!” said another, snorting in her face.
Siiri ran, her face covered with tears. She ran straight into the rude shaman.
“Arrgh! Do ya not understand this! Get the cheese, or I’m gonna hafta ice ya!” he boomed. She could almost see the steam coming out of his nose. Whimpering, she turned around and collected the cheese. When she dashed into the mousehole, she was so happy that she got her first cheese that she forgot about the mean shaman and all the mice who stared at her awkwardly. She joyfully pranced to a chair, but before she got there, she bumped into another mouse and fell down. Afraid that all the mice were mean here, she covered her eyes with her paws, bracing for the laughing or name calling. But the mouse did neither.
“Don’t worry, I’m new too,” said the mouse. Siiri uncovered her eyes. “I just got here about thirty minutes ago. I’m from the Eastern home. Oh yeah, I forgot my name. I’m Theodore, but you can call me Theo.”
“Cool, I’m Siiri and I’m from the Northwestern home,” she replied.
“Hey, wanna be friends?” he asked.
“Sure!”
The two friends gathered cheese together, and they didn’t care that others called them noob. When they finally got to shaman, they were already great friends.
“How do you do this?” Siiri called down to the mice below.
“I dunno,” Theo replied. She then accidentally spawned an invis balloon and the mice jumped, only to fall down below. They burst out giggling. After a while, the sun started to set.
“Oh noes! We were so focused on getting cheese, we don’t even have a place to sleep!” Theo wailed.
“Let’s go around town, see what we can get,” Siiri suggested. So they wandered around the town. Finally, they found a clothing store. The lady behind the counter smiled kindly at the two young mice.
“May I help you?” she asked politely.
“Uhm yeah, we need clothing. Can we have some? Pleeeaaase?” said Siiri to her.
“Sure, darling! But you need cheese to buy it!”
“Cheese? I thought you were supposed to eat the cheese!” said Theo, clearly confused.
“Right!” the lady replied, “But you also use it to buy stuff around here!” They thought about it, and started to count their cheese.
“We’ll need some to eat tonight, too,” said Siiri to Theo. Altogether, they had 100 cheese, with 6 to keep for food.
“We have 100 cheese,” Siiri announced proudly. The shopkeeper sold them 2 scarves and they walked back onto the streets. They found a park bench, and ate a small meal. Then they tried to fall asleep. Thankfully it was summer, but it was still cold at night outside.