#basilbio

THIS IS YOUR GAME

Name: Basil Walcott Age: Nineteen Class Year: Freshman Position: Backliner, #26 Hometown: London, England

THIS IS YOUR MOMENT

TW: abuse, car crash

Basil Walcott was separated from his mother almost the moment he was born, the product of a summer fling that never would have happened if Anthony Walcott knew how to keep his scandalous acts out of the paper. His father was the heir to a multimillion-dollar technology company, and prior to Basil’s birth he was sent away to England to stay with a family business acquaintance, keep a low profile, and learn how to run a business. His father spent all of eleven months and twenty-four days in England before taking his son back to the United States, seeing his son as an opportunity to get back into the good graces of his parents. But he did it without Basil’s mother: Anthony threw a chunk of money at her to keep her quiet, because the last thing his family needed was another scandal—especially another one he’d caused.

Basil grew up with the lie his father told him: that his mother had abandoned him, that she hadn’t wanted to be a mother—and with no real reason to distrust his father, Basil believed him. But from the moment that Basil was brought into the Walcott family’s large estate, there was tension: Basil was a child out of wedlock, how could Anthony have been so stupid. Still, it was an opportunity to prove that the eldest Walcott son had grown up, and so the press was told one thing about the new member of the family: Anthony had finally settled down and he had decided to adopt a child. Basil mostly grew up unaware of all the hostility between his father and grandmother, thinking his grandmother was just a cold woman and that his cruel cousins just didn’t understand him. It didn’t help, however, that Anthony seemed to turn a blind eye every time an incident happened with his son; Basil eventually stopped trying to explain why he came back from his uncle’s house with bruises and scrapes, and accepted that his family was complicated. At least, he thought, they wanted him.

He was roughly eight years old when his father finally stopped pretending not to pay attention to the harsh remarks that his mother always seemed to spit around Basil and the terrible treatment he got from everyone in the family. The fight that broke out between Anthony and his mother was the worst in the history of their fights, and it resulted in Anthony finally deciding to pack their bags and move them to New York City, far away from the Walcott’s Silicon Valley estate. It’ll be a fresh start for us, kid, Anthony claimed and, once again, Basil believed him.

Just three months after moving, his father met someone new: the single daughter of a senator, who was spoiled, rich, and looking for attention. Basil watched as his father fell for her, and at first he was excited that he was finally getting a mother that wanted him and that his father was happy. She had children of her own from a previous failed marriage, and suddenly Basil wasn’t the only thing his father paid attention to. Which would have been fine, except his new step-siblings were worse than his cousins and his new stepmother was worse than his grandmother. Basil did his best to ignore the snide remarks and cruel treatment from his stepmother and step-siblings, but it grew to be too much, and going home felt like walking into a warzone where he was the target, the enemy, the villain. And, once again, his father wasn’t doing anything to stop it.

Basil was desperate for his father’s attention again, for him to look up from that dazed, in-love look that made him ignore everything around him, including his own son. And so Basil acted out. He did little things at first: disrespecting his teachers, getting into fights with his classmates, and stealing school supplies from other children. Basil had decided that any attention from his father was good attention, no matter if his father was showering him with gifts or disciplining him for getting into trouble. He was eleven when he got kicked out of school for the first time, and by the time he turned thirteen he’d been through three different schools. After the last one, Anthony decided he’d had enough of Basil’s behavior. If he couldn’t straighten his son out, then he knew who could: and so a few weeks later Basil packed his bags for a Californian Catholic boarding school, the same one his father had attended when he was Basil’s age.

Basil wasn’t entirely happy about it: he wanted attention from his father, for him to see that he was hurt—he didn’t want to be sent off and forgotten about, tossed aside the moment he became a problem. In hindsight, maybe he should have expected it. Time and time again, Anthony had failed him and left him alone. He arrived at the doors of his new school hurt, angry, and ready to do something to prove to his worth to his father—or at least make him look at him again. He let the rumors about him spread throughout the school because he didn’t care what other people thought about him. If it was just him against the world, then it was just him against the world—he’d hide behind a cold and cruel façade, because maybe the world always meant for him to be a kid with sharp edges.

It was during Basil’s sophomore year that one of his teachers convinced him to try playing a sport to get some of his aggression out. Basil chose Exy, making the team as a backliner, and quickly fell in love with the sport. There was something about the fierceness of Exy that he instantly connected to.and, as the years went on, Basil became better and better at the sport. He focused everything on Exy, because as long as he was playing there was something right with the world. He wanted to make it, wanted to be recruited to a top-level team, and the prospects weren’t disappointing: the Binghamton Bearcats, the Ohio State Buckeyes. But Basil had his eyes set on one team in particular: Basil wanted the best of the best—because maybe if the Edgar Allan Ravens wanted him, then he’d finally be worth something to his father.

It was an accident that drove whatever prospects he may have had away. An accident beginning with a headline—Anthony Walcott Named as New CEO of Walcott Technologies—and phone call—maybe if you want someone who gives a shit, Basil, you should go find your mother—and, finally, an out-of-control drunken rage that ended in him accidently driving his car through the first floor of his father’s new company.

SEIZE IT WITH EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT

You’re lucky I’m not pressing charges was all Anthony told Basil. From the look on his father’s face, Basil knew that he’d finally gotten his father’s attention—and there was no love in the man’s eyes. It was finally clear to Basil that maybe his father never had loved him and, the second he graduated high school, he was told he wasn’t welcome in the Walcott household anymore. Eighteen years old with nowhere to go, Basil was too proud to ask for help, so he did what any kid his age would do and ignored the problem. Exy was a dream he only chased when he slept because it wasn’t like he could change people’s opinions of him. He knew what they thought: a spoiled little rich kid that didn’t get his way—and maybe that was true, but why was his father made out to be Saint Anthony? After graduation, he crashed on his friend’s couches, leaving when they got too annoyed with him or their parents finally found out. Which is why it took almost three months for David Wymack to track him down. At first Basil scoffed at the idea of playing with the Foxes—surely he was better than that. But he missed Exy, and the only time his life ever seemed to be on track was when he was playing, and so he signed.

Basil might be new to the team, but that doesn’t mean he’s kept his mouth shut. For too long, he let people walk all over him and he isn’t about to let the Foxes do the same. Basil knows that with his father in the news more and more with the success of his company, he’s being watched like a hawk for more potential screw ups, and he knows it won’t matter to the tabloids that his father has disowned him and is pretending that Basil doesn’t exist. But Basil doesn’t care what they think about him. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him. Maybe he used to be soft, but he’s not anymore. He doesn’t care about anything, except for Exy and winning. Off the court, his teammates are just people that attend Palmetto State University and Basil tries his best not to associate himself with them. But on court, they’re his teammates, the only thing keeping him truly being alone. And maybe he doesn’t want them to be his family, but damned if he’ll let himself be the reason the Foxes lose again.