Ethel Tomago lived life in the fast lane. She was a voluptuous seventeen year old with short black hair with purple streaks in it and a love for many things. Gum, rock music, leather jackets, kickboxing and speed all fell under the things she loved but boys was not one of them. She was never interested in boys until she met Tadashi Hamada. He was seventeen and was one of the biggest dorks she had ever met however she couldn't stop thinking about him. They were both at the San Fransokyo institute of technology about ten hours a day and over the many months they became close.
They met others too. A girl named Aiko Miyazaki who everyone called Honey Lemon because of her love of chemistry. A boy who everyone called Wasabi because he accidentally spilt wasabi sauce on his shirt one time. And another boy named Fred who looked like your typical comic book junkie who was the school mascot. Ethel was given the nickname Gogo because of her lust for speed and soon she started to get closer to Tadashi.
She had the biggest crush on him, however was unusually scared to admit it and it was only after Tadashi's eighteenth birthday that she finally became confident. However she could never find the right moment to tell him. Whenever she plucked up the courage someone else would engage in conversation with Tadashi and they wouldn't talk for most of the day.
Then she met Hiro Hamada. Tadashi's no-good fourteen year old brother who went out for illegal bot fights almost every night. Tadashi bought him in to see the robotics division of the SFIT and Gogo zoomed past on her bike which had been enhanced with Mag-lev technology which she explained as 'Zero resistance, faster bike' to Hiro when he asked about it. Hiro turned out to be quite a cocky young kid who also turned out to be a genius. He ended up trying out for SFIT and got a place with his micro-bots. All of them were extremely happy and Gogo, Fred, Honey and Wasabi, as well as Hiro's aunt Cass, headed off to the cafe while Tadashi and Hiro talked.
Not all seven of them made it back to the cafe though. A fire broke out in the presentation hall and Professor Callaghan was trapped inside. Tadashi went to help but before he could come get to Callaghan there was an explosion.
Gogo never got a chance to say goodbye to Tadashi and was present at his funeral, not saying anything just standing in the corner of the hall looking sullen and depressed. Hiro became isolated from them and didn't turn up for the new year at SFIT so they all sent a video message to him however he never responded to them.
Gogo became absorbed in her work growing distant from her friends and gave up on trying to contact Hiro until a few hours later she and the others received a message from Tadashi's robot Baymax.