BC04: ANTHONY GOLDEN

[Rattlesnake]

Name: Anthony Giovanni Golden
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Grade: 12
Hobbies and Interests: Watching British football, reading (particularly fantasy novels), activism, jogging

Appearance: Anthony stands at an average 5’9 and weighs 155 lbs. He’s not particularly muscular, not training for it, but his arms have some natural muscle to them and he’s got some leg muscles from jogging. He has a slim build, making sure to not eat too much junk food so he can maintain this. Thanks to his Italian mother, who he takes after more than his British father, his skin colour is a light olive colour, which deepens to a bronze tan whenever Anthony decides to go and get some tan.

His face is in a diamond shape, with thin, wiry eyebrows overhanging soft chocolate brown eyes. He has a roman nose, but it’s not as pronounced as his mother’s is. He has a rather weak jawline, which he isn’t a fan of, but his cheekbones are high enough to offset that fact. His bottom lip is a little small in comparison to his top one, and they sometimes get a little chapped, but he always has some chapstick on hand to save the day. That’s really the only facial care he regularly does; he has a couple of recurring small spots, with one under his lip and one on the left side of his forehead, but he uses a cream to get rid of them. He is clean-shaven, but has a few nicks and cuts from the razor he uses.

A distinctive feature of his is his messy blond hair; it’s a golden-blonde colour, and sticks up absolutely everywhere at odd angles. No matter how many times he wets it down or vigorously brushes it down, within ten minutes it’s sprung back up again. Cutting it only helps temporarily, and so he’s learned to live with it. He always is first in line to try new hair gel or shampoo to get it fixed, worrying that it might damage his social standing further, but so far it proves resistant to all the products he’s used.

Anthony doesn’t care much about the fashion trends of the day, opting to wear what’s comfortable in the Miami heat, which is normally just a cotton shirt and some denim shorts. There is always one mainstay in his fashion, though; a silver crucifix pendant, a possession of his late mother. On Casting Day, he opted to wear a grey t-shirt with the Tottenham Hotspur crest on it, dark blue denim shorts that ended just above the knee and a pair of grey Adidas sneakers, along with the aforementioned pendant.

Despite not having lived in England for 3 years, he still has a Cockney accent, although as the years have gone on, it’s started to be replaced with an American one. During extreme stress, it will come out more prominently.

Biography: Anthony Giovanni Golden was born on the 5th of November, 2003 in London, England to David Golden, an EMT at a local hospital, and Bella Pannicucci, a Italian immigrant to the UK and a secretary at the same hospital. His middle name was taken from Bella’s paternal grandfather. They had met while working in late 2001 and had hit it off immediately, starting to date a few weeks after they met. Half a year later, Bella had moved in with David in their Hackney flat, and there were the tentative discussion of weddings and marriages. However, in early 2003, Bella became pregnant with Anthony and so they decided to postpone the wedding talk until their child was born.

Sadly, Bella died in childbirth, and so David was forced to raise his son alone. Ordinarily, he would have taken to alcohol and moped, but he had a stabilising aspect in the local Anglican church community and its priest, Zach MacCallister, a personal friend of his from school. Together, the church community helped shoulder David’s burden. Whenever he had to go on shift as an EMT, Anthony would always have someone from the church watching over him, and at his christening, David named Zach and his wife, Suzanne, as Anthony’s godparents.

Growing up in the church, Anthony always had a healthy respect for religion. Their Hackney church was full of people from all corners of the world, and Zach often preached that although the Bible may say one thing, Jesus would want everyone to be tolerant of each other’s skin colours and sexualities. So he was taught the virtues of diversity from a young age, and grew up in a tolerant community.

In the council estate that they lived in, there wasn’t much to do for a kid Anthony’s age, as the playground equipment was normally vandalised or broken, but his dad always took him to the library once or twice a month to pick up some books to read. This instilled a love of reading in him from a young age, particularly in the fantasy genre. There were the football matches as well, where he and his dad would sit on the sofa and watch Tottenham play whoever they were up against that day on the TV.

Starting primary school in the local school, Anthony was quick to make friends with a few kids, but others just didn’t seem to like him. He knew a bunch of kids from church as well, helping introduce them to some of the other kids that he had managed to make friends with. It was a big class, so he just stuck with the people he knew, forming a little clique.

At the age of 7, David enrolled his son in St. John’s Cadets. It was a community group, helping teach kids basic first aid, communication skills and other social skills all across the UK. Anthony enjoyed it a lot, excitedly chatting to his teachers back in primary about it. He made friends with most of the kids in his small group, often hanging out with them in the local park on the weekends. A few kids from his Cadets group also attended his school, and so they were brought into the little clique as well.

Most of Anthony’s early primary life was relatively uneventful. He joined the school’s football team as a striker for a few months, but found that playing it was much more tiring and less fun than sitting and watching it on the TV and eventually quit. Instead, he focused on his schoolwork.
Education was highly valued in their home, and so from a young age David encouraged his son to develop a good work ethic. In addition, he signed up for his school’s Eco Club, which focused on being friendly to the environment and taking care of the world we live in. He found the activism part of it in particular fun. The idea of getting out on the streets and helping make a difference was very appealing to him.

Anthony’s first exposure to SOTF-TV was at the age of 9, when he caught the tail-end of a BBC news report about it. He asked his father about it, who told him that it was a bad, un-Christian show and he shouldn’t watch it. Naturally, this sparked his curiosity, and so he sought it out. It took him all of five minutes to find an episode online, and he was eager to click on it. After about twenty minutes of it, he had clicked off it and was pretty sure he was gonna have nightmares that night, which he did. From that day on, he held a healthy dislike for SOTF-TV.

His grades at school were pretty good; the work ethic his father encouraged plus a lot of reading about various subjects helped him a lot. In particular, his favourite subjects were maths, science and PE. His father had mentioned once that those were good subjects to focus on if you wanted to be an EMT, and Anthony had taken that to heart, wanting to follow in his footsteps.

The social circle he had fostered through most of his primary school life had never really changed that much — some kids had drifted away and some kids had joined in, but by large Anthony and his church group had stuck together. On the days when they weren’t tied up in afterschool clubs, they normally hung out at one of the parks in the evening, playing on the equipment if it was there and kicking around a football or listening to music while discussing the events of the school day if it wasn’t.

Anthony’s moral code, which thanks to his religious upbringing and the experiences he had growing up, was pretty strong. Stand up against bullies and injustice wherever it may be, be a good friend and try to leave places better than when you arrived. However, it sometimes led to him seeing things a little black and white, taking the side of his friends in arguments even when it was kinda clear they were in the wrong. Occasionally he’d get into arguments with other people over it, him seeing bullies when there was just a mild argument, but it never really went any further.

The most serious incident led to him getting into a scuffle with someone over them insulting one of his friends. It wasn’t really much — just a little bit of grappling and pushing, but it led to both of them getting suspended for the rest of the week. When he got home, he complained to his dad that he did the right thing and he got punished again. David replied that sometimes to do the morally right thing, you sometimes had to get in trouble for it. This blew Anthony’s mind, and he tried to remember that. This was the only instance of Anthony’s moral code getting him into any serious trouble, although sometimes he’d get into arguments with wannabe gangsters who felt that he had disrespected them outside of school.

Eventually, at the age of 11, Anthony left primary school and to celebrate, his father got him tickets to one of the Tottenham Hotspurs football matches that he had always wanted to see live. The sheer energy of the crowd and the atmosphere was almost intoxicating to him, and he regretted not being able to go see a game of football earlier. While they were there, his father got talking to an American woman who they had sat besides — Adriana Cortez. They left with his father hoping to see her again sometime soon.

And so while Anthony was focusing on his summer homework and spending time with his friends at their house or at the park, David had started meeting up with Adriana more, at the pub or a more elegant restaurant. She was a freelance financial consultant from Miami who had moved to London to benefit from the bustling financial industry there, which was at a much higher rung in the social ladder than David and his EMT job. But they hit it off, and by the time Anthony was starting secondary school, she had become a frequent appearance at their flat, and eventually moved in with them.

A lot of Anthony’s social group had been broken up by the move to a new school; some of them had fallen into new groups, some had gone to different schools and a few had even moved up to Scotland. So he quickly found another group to fall into; the football fanatics. There was the occasional argument — and occasional fist fight — over team rivalries, but Anthony stayed clear of that. Most of his friends were just casual fans of Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal, not holding petty grudges over football teams. There was a lot of ribbing over team performances, but it was all good-hearted.

Anthony took well to the new classes; some of the math he was a little iffy on, but when Adriana stopped by they’d work on it a little. She was good at math, and thus this helped them find something to bond together over. There was also football, which all three of them were very passionate about. Admittedly, Anthony found Adriana’s sudden addition to their flat a little weird. It had been just him and his dad for so long, and having another person in it all of a sudden just didn’t feel right.

On his dad’s part, he was a little worried that Anthony would forget about his mum, his first love, with Adriana’s appearance. Even if he did like Adriana a lot, he didn’t want Anthony to forget Bella either. So for Anthony’s 13th birthday, among his other gifts was a small box. Inside was a silver crucifix pendant, which his dad explained solemnly was a possession of his late mother that he had kept until he was sure that Anthony was old enough to not lose it or swap it for sweets. From then on, it became a regular part of Anthony’s fashion outside of school, as he was worried about it getting stolen out of his locker or going missing.

In February 2017, Adriana and David got married on a lovely sunny day. Most of their church’s congregation attended, along with a lot of Adriana’s extended family. Acting as an usher, Anthony met a lot of his new stepmother’s family – most of them were pleasant, even if some of them were a little irked about having to travel all the way to London to see the marriage. Zach officiated, pleased to see his longtime friend become happily married.
After this, life was going pretty good for Anthony. He had managed to get a girlfriend, Rebecca Coleston – they had met at a St. John’s Cadets meeting – and through her, he had been introduced to an activist group. It was very anti-SOTF, and constantly protested outside the American embassy in London as well as any TV stations who were broadcasting or considering broadcasting it. He always tried to make time for attending the protests, but sometimes homework or Cadets got in the way. At St. John’s Cadets, they had started to move on from the utter basics, and there was talk of them possibly helping out at festivals in a couple of years. And at home, things were a lot better now that Adriana was there, happier. He had gotten used to her pretty quickly with the marriage, and now it was natural to have her in their flat. School was going well — thanks to his step mum’s help, he wasn’t struggling with math anymore, and he was progressing pretty quickly in the other subjects.

However, Adriana had gotten an offer from a company in Miami, offering her a hefty salary to work for them in Miami. So, it was decided that they’d be moving to Miami. Anthony wasn’t happy about this. He didn’t want to leave his girlfriend, his friends at school or his home. So he began to act out a little, staying out a bit later and generally acting moody at home. His whole life was being uprooted, so he seized eagerly on these few things he had control over.

David was concerned about his son acting so out of character, so he took him to his favourite restaurant and while he was there, they had a long discussion about the move and Anthony’s recent behaviour. Anthony vented about how he felt like he had no say in it, and how he didn’t wanna leave his friends, his girlfriend or their home behind. London was his city, not Miami. Over the course of the meal, they had a huge discussion about the specifics of the move and Anthony came out of it feeling a little better about it. He still wasn’t entirely happy, but now he had a little more control and say in the specifics, and that mollified him for the time being.

And so, they moved to Miami in the summer, giving Anthony a chance to get used to his new home before he had to go to school. He tried to keep the relationship with Rebecca going, but they decided that a long-distance relationship wouldn’t work out and they amicably parted. He tries to keep up with his old friends and fellow activists back in London, but they don’t really get to talk much – school, plus Anthony’s new activist group keeps him busy, but they sometimes play games together or chat about football. With Adriana’s high-paying job plus David finding work in a local hospital, they could afford to move to a house in an affluent suburb a little while from Miami proper, much bigger than their flat in Hackney. He spent a lot of the first few weeks in their house with the AC on, not used to the Miami heat. Eventually, Adriana made him come jogging with him in the morning, which he found himself enjoying a lot, helping him acclimate to the heat. Many other things still confused him, though; the imperial system, just how much American culture had become dominated by SOTF-TV, all the different words for things – It took him a while to get used to it all.

Anthony tried to look for a group like St. John’s Cadets, but there wasn’t anything like it that he could find, so he opted to join another activist group like the one he left behind back in London. The particular one that he joined was small, but it was spirited and was primarily anti-SOTF, which was what he was looking for. The way that SOTF-TV held a monopoly over quality TV was infuriating to him, especially when included with the fact they were killing kids for entertainment, and he wanted to speak up about it, even if their little group couldn’t do much.

Eventually, time came for him to pick a school, and Adriana mentioned Mangrove High. It seemed prestigious enough, and so Anthony decided to make an attempt to get into it via testing – they could afford to pay in, but he wanted to get in on his own academic merit. With the help of his parents, he studied hard for it, making trips to the local library to brush up on American history and subjects that might be different from their British variants. When the day came, Anthony tried his hardest and he successfully tested into the school, celebrating with some takeaway food for dinner the night they got their results.

American school was a lot different from British school, so Anthony found it a little difficult to adjust to these new changes. Not having a school uniform was one of the chief changes that was the most jarring, also including this ranking system. He normally scored in the upper-middle of these rankings, especially in the subjects of maths, science and PE, so he wasn’t affected much by the defunding of the more creative subjects before he entered Mangrove.

There was one area that he struggled in however, and that was in making friends. Most people here had at least a passing interest in SOTF-TV, whereas Anthony had made it very clear that he abhorred the concept of the show and totally refused to watch it or play any media related to it. As a result, he didn’t really have many friends, unable to relate with a common interest of a lot of his classmates. So he fell in with a bunch of the other anti-SOTF people, hanging out behind a classroom for lunch with them. He wasn’t exactly close to any of them, viewing them as just an alliance of convenience. Being vocal about his hatred of SOTF, he was willing to debate it with other people who were pro-SOTF, although he never really got the chance to as most people just avoided him whenever he started talking about it.

There was one thing that Anthony could bond with people over, though, and that was the school’s football team – or as they put it, soccer. Even if the soccer team couldn’t compare with the ones he had watched back home in England, it was still fun to watch. And as long as he didn’t bring up SOTF excessively, he could use the shared interest to make friends with other people interested in soccer. His reputation as that one kid who really hated SOTF didn’t help, but as long as he shut up about it he could start expanding his social circle a little. But outside of these few moments of connection, he mostly stuck to himself.

Mostly though, Anthony just spent his time outside of school either studying stuff or hanging out with his fellow activists at one of their houses. They’d plan whatever they would do next to draw more attention to the anti-SOTF cause. Most people found them and their cause an annoyance, but Anthony didn’t particularly mind that. Like his dad told him, sometimes you had to get into trouble and have people dislike you for just doing what you see as the right thing. Even if people got oddly defensive about their enjoyment of the show when he brought it up, he was gonna bring it up whenever he could. Except when he was in school – he needed to have a social life.

Occasionally they would throw a party in someone’s house when their parents left, and Anthony discovered his distaste for being drunk. He much preferred being sober and clear-headed than the stupor that alcohol left him in, and so he refused to touch it after the first time he got drunk, preferring to drink water or soda and be the dude who makes sure everyone gets home safely. He also refused to engage in any of the drugs being passed around – sure, it was just harmless stuff like weed, but he liked being in full control of himself and not getting munchies.

In the future, Anthony plans to head back to England to go to medical school and get the qualifications to be an EMT. He’s not sure what school he’ll go to exactly – he’s not even sure if he’ll leave Miami, but he figures he has another year or so to figure out exactly what he wants to do. His dad has been suggesting that he go to the same school he went to, the UCL Medical School in London, so that’s on the top of his list.

Anthony abhors the entire concept of SOTF-TV, and can’t understand why people enjoy watching it so much. To him, the concept of young adults getting placed in a game where the only option is to kill or be killed for the amusement of the nation is nothing short of sickening. It also angers him that as a result, it’s basically the only thing on TV that’s not terrible. As a result, most of the TV he watches is British or Canadian, and he’s a frequent sight at his activist group’s protests against the show, viewing Susan Crawford, Zalika Attwood and Clara Hoffman as heroes and role models. He doesn’t hate people who watch it – rather, he recognises that they’re just indoctrinated into it and desensitised to the brutal violence in the show. Still, he can come off a little hostile when people talk about it.

His taste in music is pretty simple – he’ll listen to pretty much anything as long as it isn’t overly loud or profane, but he has a preference for 60s and 70s British bands. The Beatles, the Who, the Rolling Stones, stuff like that. As long as it doesn’t give him a headache and the lyrics don’t just consist of profanity, he’ll give it a try. This has led him into a couple of other genres as well – K-Pop, for example, although he avoids mentioning it at school as he doesn’t want to be associated with the K-Pop fanbase.

Anthony’s relationship with his parents is pretty good. He and Adriana go out jogging together in the evenings after school, where they chat about their day while working up a sweat, while with his father he’ll constantly be asking questions about what he learned in medical school and if there’s anything he should focus on in school – and of course, they normally watch Tottenham Hotspurs live online whenever they can. Even if they’re not able to go see them physically, they can still cheer them on online. They go to a local Episcopal church on Sundays to pray as a family, this act bringing them a little closer together. Sometimes they’ll video-call their old church back in Hackney to talk with Zach and his congregation, but this is rare.

He has a vast preference for sorting out disagreements and arguments with words rather than violence, meaning he will only use violence as a complete last resort. His strong moral code, while getting him into a little trouble in the past, hasn’t really gotten him into any bother in America yet. Nothing’s really happened to spark this moral code, and even if anything did happen, he likely wouldn’t get into a scuffle this time, as he’d prefer not to get into trouble over what would most likely be something minor like the scuffle in London.

Anthony’s interest in jogging is mostly recreational, a way to keep himself fit and to get to explore the city he lives in a little better. Early evening is his preferred time to jog; it’s not too hot, and there are a lot less people out. He’s thought about running a marathon in the future, but he doesn’t feel like he’s ready just yet. At home, he spends a lotta time reading. He’s still into fantasy, but he’s moved onto more adult series’ – Game of Thrones, the Lord of the Rings, Discworld.

Advantages: Anthony knows a little bit of first aid. Nothing major, just the bare basics like how to tie a tourniquet and how to correctly apply bandages. In addition, he’s pretty fit from his evening jogging and marching against SOTF-TV.
Disadvantages: Due to his intensely anti-SOTF stance, Anthony doesn’t have too many friends in Mangrove High, and as such won’t really have any allies going into the game. He also has absolutely no idea what to expect from SOTF as he’s refused to watch it or participate in any media, and will likely be taken off-guard by the events of the season.

Designated Number: BC04

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Designated Weapon: Fake Nautical Beard

Mentor Comment: "Well, well, well. I think another mentor might write this kid off for a quick laugh, but there's still potential there. There always is. I just hope he manages to sort things out with our more, uh, enthusiastic teammates. Just remember: You don't have to like what you're doing. It just has to be slightly more palatable than the second-best option."