History

Saddest Trombone

Derek was born on January 3, 1998, in Lakewood, to Artie and Norma Jackson. The Jackson family lived in a poky house on the once very genteel LeJeune Parkway. By the time Derek was born, the parkway had been supplanted as Lakewood’s primary thoroughfare by Post Road, lowering property values and degrading the neighborhood to the patronizing designation of ‘lower middle class’.

Derek was a late-in-life baby. His mother, Norma, was pushing 40 by the time he was born, and his father had seven years on her. Artie Jackson was a contractor, having worked many years at the DeLaurentis family firm. On the cusp of retiring when his son was born, he had no choice but to stay in the workforce to make ends meet.

As a child, Derek was meek and unassuming, learning early to mind his Ps and Qs to avoid sparking his father’s temper. An intelligent boy, he got excellent grades but suffered socially, finding himself a bullying target early on.

All Wet

On the evening of October 18th, 2015, Derek attended Brooke’s Big Beautiful Bash, a house party held by Brooke Maddox, one of the fresher faces Nina had surrounded herself with in lieu of people like Erin. The party wasn’t Derek’s kind of scene at all, but he let Colin convince him.

While Colin spent most of the evening passed out, Derek ended up witnessing a fight that broke out between Jake Fitzgerald and Tyler O’Neil, incited by a comment from Amanda Steele implying that Nina was cheating on Tyler with Jake. The fight saw the guys splash into Brooke’s swimming pool. Derek attempted to offer Tyler a hand out of the water and got splashed for his trouble, Tyler irately calling him “Dennis” as he stormed off.¹

Nonetheless, the unpleasant encounter got the gears turning in Derek’s head.

Appearance

Derek was a tall and lanky young man, about six feet in height, with a notably gawky build. He had a pale complexion, with a mop of black hair and brown eyes.

Personality

Derek was timid and introverted, shying away from conflict and confrontation. His meek demeanor masked a keen intelligence and a deep sense of perception derived from relegating himself to watching instead of acting. Despite the bad lot he’d been dealt by others’ cruelty, he retained a sense of empathy and a desire to help others.

Origins and Development

Derek was created by TellatrixForever for the 2015 Season 1 AU. He was the second of three OCs Tellatrix created for the game, and was explicitly conceived as “cannon fodder” for the killer, the idea being Derek was intended to predecease Tellatrix’s other characters, including his “primary” OC, Amanda Steele, who was envisioned as playing a pivotal role in the game.

Derek was the first of what ended up being two “stoner” archetypes created for the game, the other being BeartoothGuy’s Colin Gable, who was also meant to be cannon fodder. Derek was distinguished from Colin by being described as a “functional stoner” (Tellatrix specified he had no criminal record) with an interest in history. Colin, by contrast, was much more of a shiftless lay-about and was exclusively played for comic relief.

Derek appeared very sporadically throughout the game’s run, with all of his appearances being confined to the first “episode”. When the Season 2 AU launched in May 2016, Tellatrix only brought one of his old OCs back: Principal Edward Teague, leaving Derek to languish in oblivion.

Derek’s canonicity to the SRU was confirmed in 2019, with the first volume of The Story so Far affirming that he was, indeed, killed early in the Lakewood Slashings, as he was created to be. The Derek of the Story’s original iteration was thinly characterized, with no backstory or wider connections to the canvas. It was only when Lakewood: Year One began in 2023, and the Story so Far redux in 2025, that the “stoner” characters of Volume I were significantly built out.

Other Interpretations

Original OC Bio

The following is the application for the first “Derek Jackson”, submitted by TellatrixForever to the 2015 Season 1 AU on September 5, 2015. Text is presented as it was originally displayed on Fanfiction.net, with no redactions:

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Name: Derek Jackson

Age: 16

Personality: He is laid-back, and has a really great sense of humor. Good people person. Very smart individual.

Appearance: He doesn’t have a face claim. He’s 5’8″, skinny, blue eyes, long dark hair. Constantly wears shorts and sandals, along with other hippie clothing.

Likes: Weed, relaxing, History class

Dislikes: Mean people, Math, English classes.

Favorite Movie: A Nightmare on Elm Street

Bio: Derek is a stoner, pure and simple. But not just any type of stoner. A functional stoner. He’s lived in Lakewood his whole life and has never been arrested. He aspires to be a Historian of some sort one day, and is currently trying to figure out which part of History to choose from.

Other: He works part-time at the comic book store that Noah is at.

How far do you see them lasting: I see Derek either getting killed really early on, or towards the middle.

Season 1 AU

Given the paucity of his appearances in the forum itself, most of what is known about the original iteration of Derek comes from his character bio. He was a year younger in the Season 1 AU than his SRU equivalent, and in the same class as the core characters. He would’ve be bumped up a year until Lakewood: Year One.

Derek was described as having a hippie aesthetic. This is not readily apparent in any of his in-game appearances.

Notably, Derek was meant to be a coworker of Noah’s at Level Down, erroneously referred to in his OC Bio as specializing in comics rather than video games. Level Down never appears in the game, however, so this fact never comes up.

Trivia

Derek was the sixth OC created for the Season 1 AU.

As originally conceived, Derek didn’t have a faceclaim. When the Lakewood: Year One ensemble was developed in 2023, he was “cast” as Jack Champion, who had starred in Scream VI that same year. The real Jack Champion would’ve been 11 at the time Volume I takes place.

Derek is one of four SRU characters to have faceclaims from the Scream film franchise. The others are Kitty Wright, Xavier Rivers, and Dara Alden.

When The Story so Far was first written in 2019, Derek was kept the same age as his 2015 counterpart, and was a sophomore at the time of his murder. Lakewood: Year One aged him up a year, making him a contemporary of Nina and Tyler instead.

Gallery

1. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 5 ↩︎