Hiro Hamada yawned and took another gulp of coffee as he walked to his school, the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, or SFIT. He'd gotten accepted in at only 14. Now, he was 17 and in his third year of college. Next year, he'd graduate and go on to change the world.
Hiro stopped and checked his reflection in the window of a flower shop, feeling a sharp pang in his heart as he stared. His long hair was just as messy as it had been 3 years ago when he'd started college, but...he was starting to look like his late big brother Tadashi. Tadashi had died in a fire right before Hiro started at SFIT after running into a burning building to try to save his teacher, Professor Callaghan, and the building exploded. Professor Callaghan had survived thanks to Hiro's microbots, but the fire department wasn't able to find Tadashi's body, so they concluded he'd disintegrated from the heat and power of the explosion.
Hiro was beginning to notice more and more how he was starting to develop Tadashi's facial features, from his eyebrows to his chin. It didn't help that they were almost the same height now.
"Hiro." A robotic voice said to his left.
Hiro yelped and dropped his coffee, splattering it on the sidewalk.
"Aww, man!" Hiro whined to the large white inflatable robot beside him, "Baymax!"
Baymax had been Tadashi's last invention before he died. He was a large, huggable nurse robot that could treat anything from small cuts to heart attacks, and even mental illnesses like depression, as Hiro had found out after Tadashi's death. He wasn't the one his brother had built-that one had gotten lost in space forever trying to rescue Professor Callaghan's daughter Abigail-but the chip that Tadashi had created that made Baymax what he was had been given to him, so he rebuilt Baymax. Now the two were inseparable.
"I am sorry, Hiro." Baymax said, picking up the cup, "Would you like me to get you more coffee?"
Hiro sighed and said, "No, we don't want to be late. I'll just buy some at the school cafe. Just recycle that cup, okay?"
Baymax put the cup in the nearest recycling can and wobbled next to Hiro.
"Hiro, your serotonin levels are low. This means you are sad. What is wrong?" Baymax asked.
"I just can't stop thinking about how much I look like Tadashi now." Hiro said sadly.
Baymax pulled Hiro into a hug, and patted him on the head.
"There, there." Baymax said, "Tadashi is here."
"I know. Thanks, Baymax." Hiro said, pulling away from Baymax and continuing to walk to his first class.
About halfway there, a voice called out, "Hiro!"
Hiro's friends-Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Gogo, and Fred-waved and ran up to them.
"Hey, guys." Hiro said as a cold autumn breeze blew and made Hiro shiver and hold onto Tadashi's hat on his head.
"Why does autumn have to be so cold?!" he asked.
"Well, at least it's pretty. The campus looks really nice." Honey Lemon said pleasantly.
"Yeah, I just wish leaves would stop flying in my face and getting caught in my hair!" Wasabi complained, pulling a leaf from his dreadlocks.
"I'm just glad track season's started. I've been dying to start sprinting again." Gogo said, smiling.
"Yeah, but now we don't have as much time to fight crime!" Fred complained.
"SH!" Hiro, Honey Lemon, Wasabi, and Gogo hissed.
"In our new superhero video game!" Fred recovered.
"Nice save." Gogo grunted.
"I'm sure we'll still have time. We'll just have to switch to doing it at night." Honey Lemon said.
"What about during finals?" Hiro asked, shuddering.
"Then, we'll see what we can do!" Honey Lemon suggested.
"So, anyway-!"
Hiro was caught off by a yelp and a thud beside him. He and his friends saw a girl with curly red hair splayed out on the ground behind Baymax like she'd just fallen over. Her eyes were shamrock green, her skin was pale and covered in freckles, and she was wearing a red and black flannel shirt over a black one, dark distressed jeans, white high tops, a metal dog tag necklace, and a green backpack.
"Are you okay?" Hiro asked, helping her to her feet.
"Yeah, sorry. I just wasn't looking where I was going and walked into your robot." she said, dusting off her jeans.
"You're not from around here, are you? You've got kind of an accent." Wasabi noticed.
She nodded and said, "My family and I just moved here from New York City."
"Oh, cool. What part?" Hiro asked.
"Manhattan." she responded, adjusting her backpack, "My mom got a better job here than she had in New York, so we came here."
"That's nice. Good for her." Honey Lemon said happily.
"Thanks. We're pretty happy about it, too. My name's May, by the way." May said, offering her arm to shake.
"I'm Hiro," Hiro said, shaking her hand.
He pointed at his friends and said, "These are my friends, Gogo, Honey Lemon, Wasabi, Fred, and Baymax."
"'Gogo?' 'Honey Lemon?' 'Wasabi?'" May asked, frowning.
"All nicknames given by yours truly!" Fred said, giving a silly bow.
May giggled and said, "Well, it's nice meeting you guys. So, do any of you know where...uh...how do you pronounce this name is un-DEEN?"
She pointed at a place on the map she had, a building called Undine Hall.
"It's pronounced oohn-DEE-nee. I'm actually heading that way myself, so I'll take you." Hiro offered.
"Really? That would be awesome, thanks." May said, beaming.
"I guess we'll see you later, then?" Wasabi asked.
"Uh, yeah. I'll catch up with you guys at lunch." Hiro said as he and May walked towards Undine Hall.
"Yeah, your pronunciation of Undine is a lot better than mine was. Un-DEEN sounds like a brand of underwear." May said, shaking her head while smiling.
Her face then turned alarmed, and she stammered, "Not to insult the school, or anything. I'm sure there's a good reason why it's called that, like it was named after someone famous or something. New York University had plenty of unusual names like Skirball Center for the Performing Arts and Tisch School of Arts. That's not all the school had to offer, though. It wasn't like NYU was an art school or-!"
"May, I get it. It's okay, really." Hiro said gently.
May hid her face in her hands and said, "Sorry. I can be really, really awkward at times. My mom says it's an age thing, but I don't think so. I mean, I've been this way since I was born until I turned 16 last March."
"Wait, you're only 16?!" Hiro asked in amazement.
"Yeah," May said, removing her hands from her face, "I know it doesn't seem like it because I'm so awkward and kind of clumsy, but I'm super smart. I graduated high school when I was 13, and now I'm in my third year of college!"
"That's crazy! I'm the same way! I graduated high school young, too, and now I'm 17 and in my third year of college!" Hiro exclaimed excitedly.
"Seriously?! Nuh-uh!" May said, beaming.
"I'm dead serious!" Hiro said excitedly.
"That's awesome! I've never known anyone else who graduated early!" May cried.
"Me neither." Hiro said, grinning.
"Honestly, though, I hated high school. People treated me like a little girl, the students constantly asked if I was lost and needed directions back to the elementary school, the teachers looked at me weirdly when they called attendance, and some tried to make the work extra hard for me! My own counselor didn't know how to handle me! My gown didn't even fit me at graduation!" May cried, scowling.
"Dude, same. The teachers didn't know what to do with me, the students treated me like I was a five year old, and no wanted to work with me on projects!" Hiro complained.
"Ugh, that was the worst! Just because I was smaller than everyone doesn't mean I was stupid, I was in their class for a reason!" May said, rolling her eyes.
"Finally, someone who gets it!" Hiro said, his eyes alight with excitement.
"So, what's your major?" Hiro asked.
"I'm a double major. Mechanical Engineering and Computer Engineering. What about you?" May asked.
"Engineering and Robotics Major." Hiro replied.
"Oh, did you build him?" May asked, looking at Baymax.
"Sort of. He was originally my brother's creation, but the original Baymax was lost, so I used his blueprints to rebuild him." Hiro explained.
"Ah. Neat. What does he do?" May asked.
"I am a nurse bot." Baymax said, making May jump.
"Gosh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you could talk. That's really neat. Why are you so big?" May asked.
"My original inventor, Tadashi Hamada, wanted me to have a huggable, non-threatening design." Baymax explained.
"That makes sense." May said.
"Wait," she said, looking into Baymax's eyes, "Are those hyperspectral cameras?"
"Yeah, he uses them to scan people and monitor how they're doing." Hiro explained.
"That's awesome! And his structure support!" May asked, pressing her face against Baymax's midsection, "Is that titanium?"
"Carbon fiber. Makes him even stronger." Hiro said proudly.
"Wow! Your brother must've spent ages working on him! He's so well made! My mom would definitely approve." May said, backing away from Baymax.
"What does she do?" Hiro asked, resuming walking.
"She's a surgeon. She specializes in brain operations, but she can do standard procedures, too." May said.
"What about your dad?" Hiro asked.
May's face became pained, and she said, "He's dead. He died when I was 10."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Hiro said sadly.
"Thanks." May said, smiling sadly.
"What's that statue about, by the way?" May asked, pointing at stone sculpted flame inside of a marble bowl on a plaque.
"Oh, that's the Flame Memorial. A few years, a fire broke out at one of the buildings during a showcase. Everyone got out except for a professor. My-I mean, a student-ran back inside to try to save him, but the building exploded shortly after he ran in. The professor survived, but...the student burned to death. The statue was created to honor the student that died, and he had a building named after him." Hiro explained, deciding not get too personal with someone he'd just met.
"That's so sad!" May cried, "I can't imagine what his family and friends must've felt. At least he died a hero."
"Yeah," Hiro said sadly, "At least there's that."
"Did you know him?" May asked, picking up on his tone.
"Yeah. We were pretty close." Hiro said.
Wow. Understatement of the century. Hiro thought to himself.
"Ah. I'm sorry, that must've been difficult." May sympathized.
"It was really hard." Hiro said tensely, remembering the pain he'd felt after losing Tadashi.
"Uh, you seem kind of upset about that...New topic, new topic...Did you know that human body can handle pretty insane extremes? Humans can reach 107.6 degrees Fahrenheit, lose 40% of their blood, starve for 45 days, or make dive 60 feet before the succumb to unconsciousness or death?" May asked.
She winced and said, "That was a bad topic to start on. God, I sound like I'm some crazy person who's obsessed with death!"
"Like a supervillain or mad scientist." Hiro joked.
May smirked and said, "Probably a mad scientist, since I'm an engineer, and engineering is considered a science."
"You could be a scientist who was trying to find ways to better help people survive the extremes, and then went mad when you discovered that you liked torturing people." Hiro suggested.
"Yeah, and my villain name could be 'The Survivalist'" May said with a laugh.
Hiro laughed along, and they kept laughing until they reached the lobby of Undine Hall.
"So, where's room 238?" May asked Hiro.
"Second floor, to the right of the staircase. Keep going and you'll see it. Remember this rule for all the college buildings at SFIT: If it starts with 100, it's on the first floor. If it starts with 200, it's on the second floor, 300, third floor, 400, fourth floor. Pretty simple." Hiro explained.
"Thanks. See you later, Hiro." May called, walking towards the staircase.
"You too!" he called as he walked towards his class.
She seems like a cool person, even if she is a little awkward. I want to get to know her more. Hiro thought.