Enjoy :)
Cassandra Hamada had never been a very responsible person. She had always been a go-with-the-flow kind of girl. She breezed throughout her school years with barely passing grades, she didn't even bother with college, and her first real job was a cashier at a bakery. Oh, and if you ever called her Cassandra, she'd slug you in the arm so hard your bruise would have a bruise; she preferred to be called Cass.
Her go-with-the-flow, not knowing the meaning of the word "responsible" lifestyle was abruptly cut short in October of 2004.
Cass' older half-brother Tomeo and his wife Maime were going on a cruise for their second honeymoon, and had asked Cass to watch their boys, Hiro (3) and Tadashi (9). Both Maime and Cass were reluctant. Maime didn't believe Cass could be trusted with such an important task, while Cass believed it would be too hard for her. But Tomeo was persistent, and eventually both women agreed to it.
As Tomeo was going over the instructions for watching the boys and Maime was telling them goodbye repeatedly, Cass couldn't help looking at her family members and thinking about how they were such an interesting blend of American and Japanese cultures: her and Tomeo's father was Japanese, Tomeo's mom was also Japanese, and Cass' mom was American. Maime, on the other hand, was an American orphan raised by Japanese people. Definitely a unique way to blend two cultures. [1]
"…and lastly, do not let the boys convince you we let them have candy for breakfast," Tomeo's voice interrupted her thoughts. Darnit, she had let her mind wander again.
"Right," Cass said, nodding her head quickly, at which Tomeo sighed.
"You didn't hear a word I said, did you?"
"No," Cass argued, before sheepishly saying, "I heard a little bit at the end."
Sighing, Tomeo went over the instructions again, this time making sure Cass was paying attention. After he was sure that Cass had everything down, he went and said goodbye to the boys with his wife.
As they were just getting ready to leave, Cass cast a glance towards little 3-year-old Hiro and another question came to mind, "Hiro's potty trained, right? I mean, I don't MIND dealing with diapers, but…"
"Don't worry," Tomeo interrupted her, sighing at her apprehensiveness, "That kid was crawling into the bathroom all the time when he was just a few months old. He was so curious, we just got it over with the day he turned 2. For a few months afterwards, I woke him up in the middle of the night to make sure he didn't have any accidents, so now he's fine." He rolled his eyes again as he told her, "So no, you don't have to deal with diapers."
"Oh thank goodness," she sighed, which only caused the two to roll their eyes again. Cass then threw her arms around her brother and told him, "Have a good time, you two."
"We will," Tomeo promised, as the two headed out the door.
However, a few feet from Cass' door, Maime instantly spun around and said, "Remember, Hiro has a slight allergy to peanuts, and Tadashi only needs to wear his glasses to read." At that, Tomeo dragged his wife down the hall to the stairs, out the front of Cass' apartment building, where their cab was waiting. Cass watched the cab from her window before turning back to her nephews.
"Ok, Cass, you can do this. It's just for two weeks. You may not know anything about kids or parenting, but you know about fun." At that, she approached the boys with a smile on her face and asked, "Who wants to help me make cookies?"
"WE DO!" the boys chimed in unison, as they hopped off the couch. Well, Tadashi hopped off, Hiro had to climb off because he was so little.
For the rest of the day, Cass and the boys had fun baking cookies and watching old Western movies on TV. For dinner they microwave leftover meatloaf. When it came time for bed, Cass (her apartment only having one bedroom) got the pullout couch ready for the boys.
"Ok, you two," she told them as she tucked them in, "In the morning I'll take you to school, Tadashi, before I go to work. Hiro, my boss said there's a TV in the back that you can watch while I work. I'll check on you as often as I can. And Tadashi, I'll eat my lunch on my fifteen minute break, so I can take my half-hour lunch at 3:30 to come pick you up from school. We'll probably just get takeout for dinner. Sound good?"
"Yes, Aunt Cass," Tadashi nodded, before letting out a yawn.
"Yes, Auntie Cass," Hiro replied, also letting out a yawn.
Smiling, Cass kissed both on them on their foreheads before turning off the light and heading to her room.
"Well, Cass," she told herself, "That wasn't so bad. I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself."
The next two days were rather uneventful, with Cass taking Tadashi to school before going to work with Hiro. The bakery she worked at was called The Good Stuff; it was located in the bottom floor of the owner's loft, right in the middle of downtown San Fransokyo.
The three had pizza for dinner on Monday, and spaghetti and meatballs on Tuesday (Cass knew she would never hear the end of it if she just fed the boys takeout the entire two weeks they were staying with her).
On Wednesday, they were heading home when it started raining; the forecast said a storm was likely, blown in from a hurricane in the middle of the sea. Cass had never been a fan of storms, seeing as how her parents had been in a bad car wreck in a storm; her mother had been killed instantly, while her and Tomeo's father died on the way to the hospital.
Luckily, they pulled into her apartment's parking garage right as the rain started picking up. They hurried across the street to get inside, getting practically drenched in the process. As they were heading to the stairs, Sonya, the manager of the building, stopped them.
"Cass," she called from the front desk, her voice showing something was wrong, "There are a couple of men here to talk to you."
Turning towards the front desk, Cass saw two officers with grim looks on their faces and instantly grew worried.
"You're Cassandra Hamada, correct?" one officer, "Jake" his nametag read, asked as they approached her and the boys.
"Yeah," Cass answered, her worry allowing her to ignore that they had called her Cassandra instead of Cass.
"We…we have some unfortunate news to tell you. If you like, we can go someplace a bit more private," the other officer, "Danny", told her.
Cass looked around. They were the only ones in the lobby except for Sonya, who seemed to take the unsaid message and hurried into the back, leaving Cass and the boys alone with the two officers.
"What seems to be the problem?" Cass asked, worry in her voice, her eyes unconsciously drifting towards the storm outside, the weather forecast from Tuesday replaying in her head.
"…and just a heads up, folks, a hurricane by the name of Nanette has appeared in the middle of the Pacific. We personally won't see her, but a little bit of her babies will be here on Wednesday…"
"Have you heard of Hurricane Nanette?" Danny asked her, making her even more worried.
"Yes," Cass managed to choke out, as she saw lightning flash outside, causing Hiro to bury his face in her leg.
"Well…" Jake began, looking down at Hiro and Tadashi; the boys' presence made this hard but both officers knew that they all had to hear this, "We're sorry to tell you that the ship your brother was on, the SS Takachiho, veered off-route and went straight into Nanette." [2]
"No," Cass choked out, as Tadashi's eyes went wide. Even though he was only 3, even Hiro understood something bad had happened to his mommy and daddy.
"I'm sorry, ma'am ," Danny stated, placing his hand on Cass' shoulder, "But you're brother and sister-in-law are… they're missing at sea and…presumed dead."
Cass grabbed both of the boys and held them close as she kept repeating, "No, no, no."
"Out of the 656 people on the cruise ship, only 7 washed up on the coast, barely alive," Jake said, "As soon as Nanette is fully gone, the Coast Guard is gonna send a search team to the SS Takachiho's last known location, but we can't promise they'll find anything. I'm so sorry."
At that, Jake and Danny left, having more people to inform of their losses. Cass and the boys sobbed for quite some time, slowly making their way up to the apartment. They went to bed early, not even bothering with dinner. They all slept together on the pullout couch, as the storm, the "baby" of Tomeo and Maime's "killer", raged on outside.
Of course, Cass called into work the next day; her boss was more than understanding, telling her to take the rest of the week off and giving her and the boys his condolences.
The SS Takachiho sinking became the country's top news story, being all over TV and the newspapers. It made Cass and the boys even more upset that it was everywhere they looked; constantly hearing about it made it all the more "real", which made it all the more depressing.
Completely understanding, Sonya offered to watch the boys on Friday while Cass met her brother's lawyer. The lawyer, a short, stout man with pale skin and big-rimmed glasses, explained that Tomeo's life insurance equaled to nearly 10,000 dollars, and it was to go to the boys. Knowing they were too young to have such money, Cass offered to put it into a saving's account for them; that way it would not only be ready for them when they were old enough to use it, it would also grow over the years.
However…
"While that is a good idea, Miss Hamada," the lawyer told her, looking through some papers, "It is not your decision to make."
"Why not?" Cass asked, somewhat offended. She had put on her nicest clothes and taken an extra-long shower to make sure she looked nice for this meeting, and now the guy was telling her she didn't even need to be here.
"Because," the lawyer handed her a sheet of paper, "You are not the boys' guardian."
Cass looked at the paper she was given; it stated that Tomeo's best friend and his wife, Jonathon and Nancy Lasseter, were Tadashi and Hiro's godparents. [3]
"But…" Cass didn't know what to say. She lost her brother and sister-in-law, her nephews were the only family she had left. She couldn't lose them, too.
"I'm sorry, Miss Hamada," the lawyer said, his tone neutral and non-apologetic, "But Mr. and Mrs. Lasseter are your nephews' legal guardians as of today. I'll give you their number, and you can call them to come pick up the boys." At that, he scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to her. "On the plus side, their house is completely paid off, and it now goes to the next of kin, which, since the boys are still children, is you. And once Hiro and Tadashi take what they want, you are entitled to all the possessions inside." With that said, he handed her the deed to the Hamada household and a pen, which she begrudgingly signed.
"Is there anything I can do about the boys?" she asked him, tears welling up in her eyes.
Feeling an ounce of pity for the woman in his otherwise stone-lawyer heart, the man shrugged and said, "Mr. and Mrs. Lasseter are the boys' guardians. If you want to be the one to look after them, you need to talk the Lasseters. Now, I have more clients to get to, specifically a few family members from the SS Takachiho, so if you have no other questions, I say good day, Miss Hamada." At that, the man shut his briefcase and gestured to the door.
Cass thanked him as she hurried out, looking at the number in her hand.
Luckily for Cass, Jonathon and Nancy were more than understanding; they gladly signed the adoption papers over to Cass, who was now Hiro and Tadashi's legal guardian.
However, they weren't done jumping through hoops yet. On Saturday, a middle aged man with a clip board and nice suit showed up at Cass's door.
"Can I help you?" Cass asked, looking the man up and down. He was slightly pudgy and had balding grayish hair; his nametag read "Seth".
"My name is Seth, and I'm with Children's Services. I understand that you…" he paused to look at his clipboard, "Cassandra Hamada, recently obtained guardianship of your nephews, Hiro and Tadashi, after the deaths of their parents, Tomeo and Maime Hamada. Is that correct?" He looked at her expectantly.
"Yes," Cass nodded, again (reluctantly) ignoring the fact that she had been called Cassandra.
"Well, I need to make sure the children are in good care," Seth told her, "I need to make sure that you are a good caretaker, you have a steady flow of money, and that your place of living is up to code for children. Will that be a problem?"
"Well," Cass said reluctantly, looking back into her apartment, where several boxes were stacked, "I'm not necessarily ready. You see, the boys and I are gonna move back into their old house, which I now own, so their living situation will be roughly the same. As for money, I'm going to talk to my boss about a raise first thing when I go into work on Monday. And while I might not know much about children, I'm sure I can do a good job of raising them right." Cass put on a big smile, hoping to seem ok to this guy.
"Very well," Seth said, writing a few things down, "I will visit the Hamada household in two weeks. I suggest you do your best to impress me. After all, nothing is more important to me that the safety of children." At that, Seth turned and walked back down the hall towards the stairwell, causing Cass to breathe a sigh of relief.
"I have got to make sure my boss gives me a raise on Monday," she told herself worriedly as she shut the door.
At that, she turned to the boys, who were sitting on the couch looking through an old photo album. She smiled as she saw their eyes light up at the pictures of their parents.
"Auntie Cass," Hiro asked, looking up at her, "Is this you?" The way he asked "you" was in such disbelief, Cass wondered what picture they could have possibly found.
Upon sitting down in between them and taking the album, her eyes went wide at the picture they had been looking at: it was of her, the summer she had dyed her hair a bright red. She had only been aiming to do a couple streaks, but had been too impatient to read the instructions on the hair dye box. Tomeo had INSISTED on taking a picture, and Cass had relented, giving a goofy smile to the camera as Tomeo took the picture.
"I can't believe he kept this picture," Cass chuckled. At that moment, Cass was sure that everything would be ok as long as she kept her head on her shoulders.
When Seth came back to visit the Hamada family two weeks later, he was surprised to see that they had moved. The Hamada house had been sold for a decent sum, and Cass and her boys were now living in…
"The Good Stuff?" Seth questioned, looking at the sign above the front door as he entered the bakery. "Hello?" he called, at which Cass appeared from the back room.
"Seth? Has it been two weeks already?" Cass asked, genuinely surprised.
"Yes, yes it has been," Seth replied, getting his notebook and pen ready, "I was on my way over when my boss told me that you had moved, and now I see you're living in this bakery. Care to explain?"
"Well," Cass rubbed the back of her neck, "It's kind of a long story, but actually a funny one, too. When I came into work the Monday after you visited, I was surprised to see my boss wasn't here yet, which is odd because he's always here first thing. Luckily I have a key, so I came in and got things ready for the day. Ya know, make a good impression for that raise. While I was doing that, my co-worker Amy, who was supposed to open with me, called in with the stomach flu, and the chef, Bert, called in and said he had car trouble and would be at least an hour late. So about 5 minutes before we opened, there was already a pretty long line of people outside, waiting to grab a bite to eat before work, I guess, and my boss still wasn't here. I was getting nervous, to say the least, because it looked like I would have to take care of everything on my own. Suddenly, this LIMO pulled up outside the front door, and MY BOSS stepped out in a really fancy suit. He marched right in and asked where Bert was. I told him that Bert was going to be late, at which my boss groaned before asking for Amy, at which I told him she called in sick. He groaned again while looking urgently at his watch. So then…"
"Waiter?" a customer called, at which Cass held up one finger to Seth and hurried over to take the man's order. During this time, Seth looked around the place. Propped up beside the counter was a wooden cat sculpture, with a sign reading "The Lucky Cat" right next to it.
"So then," Cass' voice sounded off right next to Seth, "He simply looked at me, sighed, and asked if I wanted the bakery. I, of course, asked what he meant, and he explained that he won the lottery and had a flight to Hawaii to catch, so he was gonna give the bakery to Bert. But his flight left in less than an hour, and he didn't have time to wait for Bert to get here. Of course, it dawned on me that this could be perfect for me, so I asked him if I would get the upstairs apartment, as well. He said yes, and that he had already taken everything he wanted out of it, so I could keep everything still in it. So, 5 minutes later, he pulled out in his limo, and I owned the bakery."
"Wow," Seth said, impressed, "That's pretty lucky for you, Miss Hamada."
"Well, I still had to take care of everything on my own that day until Bert got here, but overall…yeah, it was pretty lucky. Especially since I was able to sell my brother's house for a fat wad of cash," Cass said, chuckling, "And luckily the next day my boss…former boss called and explained it to everyone, and they were cool with it. Bert's upset, of course, but nothing he can really do about it."
"So," Seth looked at his clipboard, "You and the boys are living in the upstairs apartment now?"
"Yes," Cass nodded, "And since my boss was the only one living in it before, the apartment was only made for one person. But I was able to fix that by turning the attic into a bedroom for the boys."
"The attic?" Seth asked with a raised eyebrow, at which Cass gulped.
"Yes," she said slowly, "My boss kept it fairly clean, and it's big enough for two beds. Oh, and you can get up there by stairs, no usual "attic door". So, I've been cleaning it out, making sure there are no bugs or other infestations. I've already got both their beds up there, along with a desk for Tadashi to do his homework." Cass silently prayed that this would be enough for Seth to mark her as a responsible guardian and not take the boys away from her.
"Very well, Miss Hamada," Seth said, marking a few things on his clipboard, "I declare that you are a worthy guardian for your nephews. I'll report this to my superior. Do NOT make me regret this." He then held out his hand, which Cass shook, before he headed out the door.
"Thank you for my bottomless well of luck," Cass glanced upwards, breathing a sigh of relief.
Over the years, Cass did the best she could to raise the boys. One thing that became apparent early on was that they were both geniuses. Tadashi was an "average" genius, while Hiro was an advanced genius. Simply put, Tadashi moved forward in school at a normal pace, while Hiro was in high school by the time he was 10.
Of course, Hiro's intellect lead to problems with bullies, and problems with bullies led to Tadashi defending his little brother, which led to parent-teacher conferences. Thankfully, after the third time it had happened, Hiro made a set of spy cameras, and when Cass, their principal, and the bullies' parents met, everything was taken care of; Tadashi's record was wiped clean, and the bullies were expelled.
Hiro actually graduated with Tadashi, but then things took a different turn for the boys. While Tadashi applied to San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, Hiro started slacking off, using his brain to his own mischievous advantage. And of course, this brought back a problem for Cass: her stress eating.
Back in elementary school, Cass had been slightly pudgy, because she was oversensitive and ate when she was upset or angry or…well, stressed. Finally, right before middle school, her parents made her start seeing a therapist, who helped Cass slim down and realize that eating was not the answer.
Sadly, with her youngest nephew constantly getting into trouble, Cass had started feeling stressed again. She got a cat (named it Mochi) to calm herself, and then fired two of the worst employees in the bakery (now a full fledged café), reasoning if she kept busy with work, she wouldn't go back to stuffing herself. Didn't work.
Luckily though, Tadashi was there for his aunt; he got his brother to want to enroll at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. He also invited Hiro into his friend group, so the boy would stop spending so much time alone.
Of course, as quickly as thing were going uphill for the Hamadas, it came crashing down even harder.
The same night Hiro ended up getting accepted to SFIT, Tadashi was killed in a fire. Ultimately, Hiro fell into a deep depression over losing his older brother and closest friend. Cass did everything she could for him, though it was hard for her, too.
Eventually, Cass managed to get over her nephew's death as best she could (she accepted she would never truly get over it, but she knew she couldn't let the grief consume her life). She tried to help Hiro out of his funk, but she accepted that while she and the boys had always been close, they had been closer with each other, which is why it was so hard for him to move on.
Finally, after almost two months of depression, Hiro finally got over his older brother's death…right at the same time a new super hero team showed up in San Fransokyo. This new team (that some were calling the "Super Six", which was a rather stupid name in Cass' opinion) had "unintentionally" revealed something horrible to Cass: Tadashi wasn't accidentally killed, he was accidentally murdered!
His own professor, Robert Callaghan, had started the fire to fake his own death and use Hiro's prized creation (the microbots) to enact revenge on Alistair Krei, an old rival responsible for the (presumed) death of Callaghan's daughter, Abigail. However, these mysterious heroes had managed to save Abigail (Cass wasn't aware of the full details) and Callaghan was arrested.
When Cass informed Hiro of this, he was just as shocked as she was. The two of them (and Mochi) slept together on the couch that night, comforting each other over this horrible news.
But surprisingly, the realization of his brother's death seemed to be just the thing to FULLY shake Hiro out of his depression. He started hanging out with Tadashi's friends, he registered at SFIT (and ultimately became one of their best students), and eagerly told Cass everything over dinner each night, which made her extremely happy (even if she couldn't understand half of what he was telling her).
Of course, meeting Hiro's new best friend was a big shocker for her. It was about a month after finding out the truth about Tadashi. One Saturday, Cass had come up to Hiro's room to get his laundry (even though he offered, Hiro wasn't allowed to do the laundry after he had somehow turned EVERYTHING in a DARK load completely pink) and had been accidentally bumped against Hiro's dresser, knocking his old battle bot onto her foot, causing her to cry out in pain…
"So…" Cass said, plopping down on Hiro's bed after being told the whole story, "Let me make sure I've got this straight: Tadashi's health care robot, Baymax," she looked at the big white inflatable robot standing right next to Hiro, "Helped you get over Tadashi's death because that's one of the things that he's designed to do? And now he's slowly learning new things from you, as well as helping you with any issues you may have?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Hiro shrugged like it was no big deal, while on the inside he was silently praying Aunt Cass would be okay with keeping Baymax around.
"Yes, Aunt Cass," Baymax said, looking her up and down, "I am Hiro's best friend. I often do sick things."
"Ok, I don't wanna get sci-fi movie here, but we don't have to worry about him deciding humans are inferior to him and trying to take over the world, right?" Cass asked her nephew as she nervously eyed Baymax up and down.
"Don't sweat it, Aunt Cass," Hiro brushed the idea off, "Baymax literally can't hurt humans. It's in his programming."
"That is right, Aunt Cass," Baymax nodded, "I see no reason to harm the human race, as despite your faults, many of you are kind, caring beings who only want the best for those you care about."
Cass looked at her (rather eager) nephew and his puffy robot, who were both looking at her expectantly (well, she assumed Baymax was looking at her expectantly; it was hard to tell since all his face had were two black dots for eyes).
"Well, if Tadashi invented you…" she began, before sighing, "Welcome to the family."
"Yes!" Hiro cheered, jumping onto the bed and wrapping his aunt in a hug. Baymax then scooped them both up in a hug, as Cass sighed, before actually chuckling. This was a bit much, but then again it was her family.
The following Monday, as usual, Hiro's friends met at the bakery to pick him up and grab a quick bite to eat. And since he didn't have to hide it anymore, Hiro was now carrying Baymax's travel case like a suitcase instead of lugging it in his backpack (Cass had thought his backpack looked like it was overstuffed, and now she knew why).
"Brought your lunch, Sweetie," she said, handing Hiro his lunch bag.
"Thanks Aunt Cass," Hiro said, hugging her as his friends got up and got ready to leave. Hiro went to pick up Baymax's travel case, and Cass started to head back into the kitchen…
"Last hug," they both said in unison, wrapping their arms around each other. Cass then placed a kiss on Hiro's forehead before letting him go. He then leaned up and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before grabbing Baymax and heading off with his friends.
Cass sighed in content as she watched Hiro go. Who would have ever thought that this lazy, somewhat party girl who didn't know the meaning of the word "responsibility" would ever end up becoming a rather-successful mother-figure?
"Definitely not me," Cass smirked to herself, as she got back to work, "Definitely not me."
Kinda bummed Cass didn't have a bigger role in the film, but she is the "hero's parent" so it kinda makes sense.
This was just a story that came to me after I saw the movie. All they said was Cass had been raising them for 10 years, and that the boys' parents had died when Hiro was 3. So, I thought I'd give a little explanation in the form of a tear-jerking yet sweet story. And it was never said if Cass was short for something, so I made it short for Cassandra.
In October 2004, there was Subtropical Storm Nicole, so I simply change it to Hurricane Nanette to use for my story.
National novel Writing Month word count: 4764 out of 50,000
Total word count: 16,946 out of 50,000
[1] For the Hamada family's heritage, let's break it down:
Cass and the boys have the same last name, Hamada. That implies that Cass is their paternal aunt. Obviously, Hamada is not an American surname, yet Cass does not look like she is Japanese. So, I made it so Cass and Tomeo were half-siblings, with a Japanese dad; Tomeo's mom was Japanese, while Cass' mom was American. Thusly, Cass is, like her nephews, half-Japanese. And her appearance implies she takes after her mother.
And since the boys are half-Japanese, I made their mom American, yet in the comics her name is Maime, which is not an American name. Thusly, she was an American orphan raised by Japanese parents.
[2] In the Big Hero 6 comics, Hiro's last name was originally Takachiho.
[3] A nod to Disney/PIXAR's chief creative officer.