History

Jake was born on April 17, 1999, to Carmen and Nestor Fitzgerald, in Lakewood. The Fitzgeralds were an old family, and wealthy, having come up from nothing a century earlier. By the time Jake came around, the Fitzgeralds resided in a picturesque mansion in the waterfront district of south Lakewood.

Nestor had done his part to fluff the family coffers through strategic investments (conducted under the auspices of under-supervised brokers) and cashed out before he turned 30, leaving Carmen to be the sole earner in the family, through her boutique fashion label.

Jake was raised in privilege and knew it. The Fitzgeralds weren’t modest about their wealth, and saw no point pretending they weren’t fabulously wealthy. Jake’s every desire was indulged, and he developed a temperament that forced more than one babysitter into an early retirement. Carmen, much too busy to dedicate time to her hellion son, received advice from a socialite friend, Monica Maddox, who recommended Adeline Belmont, a farmwife who, with her husband Clint, maintained a sizable tract of land outside town. Monica had been sending her daughter Brooke to the Belmont farm for a short while and was pleased with the results.

Jake, Brooke, and the Belmonts’ son Will spent long summers on the farm, forging a close bond. Jake and Will in particular became regular partners in crime. Their birthdays were two days apart, and Adeline and Carmen began a tradition of throwing them joint birthday parties, cementing a brotherly bond between them.

Brooke recalled an adolescent incident wherein Jake and Will soiled a Prada top of hers with her own makeup. Jake attempted to machine wash the damage away, oblivious to the fact that the top was line dry only. Will had a crisis of conscience and confessed the truth to Brooke, who was not above bringing this up to Jake years later in service of a point.¹

The Jake

Jake’s swagger served him well as years passed. While he could and no doubt did come off obnoxious to his peers, his force of personality ensured he was always popular…a fact that his family’s money didn’t hurt either. In September 2014, Jake entered George Washington High School as part of the Class of 2018. He and Will joined the basketball team, where Will quickly proved himself a rising talent, amassing clout apart from Jake and Brooke for the first time in his life.

This clout led to Will and Jake being noticed by GW High’s Queen Bee, Nina Patterson. If Nina was interested in Will, she couldn’t do anything about it: Nina had a boyfriend, Tyler, who’d lost his position as point guard to Will; and Will had just begun dating the pretty but unassuming Emma Duval.

Shake-ups persisted, however, and by the time they’d come back from Christmas break, Nina and Tyler had abruptly broken off…and Nina was suddenly interested in Jake. The relationship may have been a sham designed to make Tyler jealous, but Jake didn’t care at first, relishing the perks that came with being Nina’s arm candy.

These perks included certain secrets: namely, about Lakewood Eyes, a clandestine intelligence network Nina and Tyler had begun a few months earlier, designed to collect sensitive information on Lakewood residents that could be used for blackmail. By the time Jake learned about Lakewood Eyes, Nina and Tyler had already made thousands of dollars. Jake, always up for a thrill, eagerly joined up.

Help a Bro Out

In February 2015, about a month after Jake joined Lakewood Eyes, he spilled the beans to Will. The Lancers had just suffered a narrow loss, and Will lost his cool in the locker room, venting his fears to Jake about not being able to snag an athletic scholarship, his only key out of Lakewood.

Jake, affected by his friend’s plight, brought him to Nina and Tyler, pitching Will as the fourth member of Lakewood Eyes. Nina was skeptical but offered to bring Will in, but only if he could provide collateral: something she could use to ensure he wouldn’t stab her in the back. Nina challenged him to have sex with Emma before her 16th birthday, a little over a month out.

Will had his reservations, but squared his shoulders and committed. A few days later, Brooke told Jake how surprised she was that Will was going all out on Valentine’s Day for Emma. Jake, unable to suppress his giddiness, admitted what was going on, claiming that it was just a “bet” and not mentioning anything about Lakewood Eyes. Brooke, disgusted, went to Nina to get her to call it off, but to no avail.

Valentine’s Day came and went: Will took Emma’s virginity and was formally inducted into Lakewood Eyes.

Ultimately, Jake and Nina’s relationship didn’t work out. Nina proved too frigid for his tastes, and their sexless partnership fizzled out before the end of the year.² Their business partnership, however, was alive and well.

Kissing and Kegging

Friction between Jake and Will came to a head in mid-October, after the Lancers qualified for the basketball playoffs. They got into an argument, Jake coming away convinced he’d scared his friend straight.³

Things remained tense the next day, October 17th, though Jake didn’t show it, given they were hanging out with the rest of the “in-crowd” at the Wren Lake Overlook. Zach was reenacting a play from a recent football game while Jake mischievously tried to trip him.⁴ Before his maneuver could succeed, Emma recognized the car of her childhood best friend Audrey Jensen pulling up at the opposite side of the summit. Audrey, unaware she was being watched, began making out with another girl. Emma’s shocked reaction drew the notice of the others, who responded with scandalized glee.

Nina took a venomous pleasure in this bit of gossip, whipping out her phone and recording the girls’ intimate moment. Emma, offended on her old friend’s behalf, told Nina to delete the video. Nina promised to “take it off her phone” and honored this exact words defense by deleting it from her phone, after uploading it to YouTube the next day, where it rapidly went locally viral.^{5 6}

In the interim, late on the 17th, Jake attempted to make peace with Will over text, but Will shot him down, responding that Lakewood Eyes wasn’t a game…for him in particular, it was his entire future in the balance.⁷

The kissing video was uploaded the same night as Brooke’s Big Beautiful Bash, a house party thrown by Brooke ostensibly to celebrate the Harvest Moon. It being a party, Jake was of course in attendance. Brooke allowed him to pick the party playlist, though she found herself regretting the trap-heavy mix Jake chose.⁸

Jake was characteristically the center of the action, chugging from a keg in Brooke’s garden, to the cheering approval of other guests. A furious Audrey crashed the party, pushing past Zach, who knocked into Jake, causing him to spill beer over himself. Audrey paid the boys no mind, going on to confront Emma, blaming her for the video. The girls were split up by Brooke on Emma’s side and Audrey’s friends Noah Foster and Amanda Steele on the other.⁹

Audrey ditched promptly, but Noah and Amanda were cornered by Nina and Tyler. Amanda insinuated that Tyler was giving too much of himself to an ungrateful Nina, suggesting she was being unfaithful to him. The insecure Tyler jumped to the conclusion that Nina was cheating on him with Jake and furiously summoned him, thwarting Jake’s attempt at a chug record. When confronted about his alleged relationship with Nina, the by now soused Jake assumed Tyler was joking, insisting once was more than enough Nina for him. Tyler, insulted, tackled him and the two guys splashed into Brooke’s pool.¹⁰

The struggle was broken up by an irate Brooke, who demanded an explanation. The surly Tyler didn’t hang around to give one, leaving Jake to face the full bore of Brooke’s wrath. Brooke’s temper wasn’t improved by learning of the Jake/Nina allegations, which he vehemently denied. Exasperated, Brooke declared her party ruined and ordered her guests to leave.¹¹

The by now quite drunk Jake made an attempt, but found he’d lost the keys to his Behemoth in the pool. To this effect, he returned to the pool deck, where Brooke, Emma, Riley, and Zach were attempting to clean up, was too wasted to even make it back to his Behemoth. Jake placated the exasperated Brooke, telling her he’d bum a ride off Will, only to be dryly informed by the others that Will had never shown up to the party to begin with.

Brooke told Jake to pass out on the couch while she retrieved the keys but, before anyone could move further, Zach received word from his mother of a shocking tragedy: the Hendersons’ neighbor, Stacy Winters, had been murdered with her boyfriend, Brock Carmichael. Mrs. Henderson had found the bodies.¹²

War of Attrition

Jake arrived at school the next day to find the place crawling the sheriff’s deputies in response to the killings, and nearly got into a tiff with Sheriff Hudson himself over a parking space, before realizing who he was talking to.¹³

In English class, Jake peppered Zach with questions about his neighbor’s murder, to Brooke and Emma’s undisguised displeasure. Noah interjected into the conversation to explain about the bystander effect. Jake was unamused, but Riley entertained him. Jake took umbrage at Brooke’s insistence Atlanta transfer student Kieran Wilcox take Will’s vacant desk for the day, but was of course unable to stop his friend’s place being usurped.

Noah proceeded to derail the class with a discussion of his paper on The Great Gatsby, which attempted to compare the novel’s themes with the 1994 Brandon James murders. Jake took part only insofar as to betray he’d read the book without submitting a paper, much to Mr. Branson’s incredulity.¹⁴

Following a game of pickup basketball with Zach at lunch, Jake was confronted on the blacktop by Tyler, who’d skipped class just to see him. Zach, Brooke, and Riley all assumed this had something to do with the Jake/Nina rumors, which Jake neither confirmed nor denied, speaking to Tyler privately.

Tyler’s business turned out to have nothing to do with Nina’s alleged infidelity: all he wanted was to know where Will was, a subject that was as mysterious to Jake as it was to him. Jake, realizing this must have something to do with Lakewood Eyes, tried to press Tyler for details, which he wouldn’t give, saying only that Jake had better find him and point him to Tyler when he did.¹⁵

More concerned about Will than he wanted to admit, Jake lingered in the Behemoth outside his house after school and finally responded to his text from a few days prior, asking Will where he’d been. He began to type an apology as well, but couldn’t bring himself to send it.¹⁶

Appearance

Jake was a tall, athletic young man with a leanly muscled figure. At 6’1, he’s the tallest of his friends, narrowly beating Will and Zach. He had an olive complexion, wavy black hair and brown eyes.

Wardrobe

Jake’s style tended toward ostentatious and flamboyant. Among other things, he was fond of Hawaiian shirts, wearing one to Brooke’s Big Beautiful Bash, paired with Bermuda shorts.^{17 18} He was known to accessorize with a gold chain, which his shirts’ open collars rendered visible.¹⁹

Personality

Jake is extroverted and id-driven. Loud and expressive to the point of being obnoxious, he can turn on the charm when he wants, but is most comfortable acting like an overgrown 12-year-old. Hedonistic, he’s a huge fan of pleasure for its own sake, loving any excuse to let loose.

Despite his party-loving attitude, Jake has a hot temper and can be dangerous when provoked, and is prone to lashing out when he feels he’s been wronged.

Jake is an inveterate liar, and has a habit of reflexively chain-linking falsehoods, often to his own detriment. This is a childhood habit that gained a much darker dimension once he was involved with Lakewood Eyes.²⁰

Skills

Power Drinking: Jake could hold his liquor to a remarkable degree. He was on pace to beating a record for chugging from a keg through a hose before circumstances intervened.²¹ According to Zach, Jake is oblivious to his own alcohol tolerance, and will drink well past his capacity.²²

Athleticism: While not as serious about basketball as Will, Jake is a gifted athlete and is unafraid to show his skills off on the court.²³

Equipment

The Behemoth: Jake drives a white Mustang he calls “the Behemoth”.^{24 25} The muscle car is sleek, fearsome, and very expensive. It’s his prize possession.

Development

Despite being credited as a guest star in Scream the TV Series, Jake appeared in every episode of the first season. Fittingly, he was part of the SRU at its inception. Since 2015, he has been portrayed by three people.

He was portrayed by forum moderator Celebrity01 in the 2015 Season 1 AU. Though Celebrity was part of the May 2016 Season 2 AU, he was unable to reprise the role, which had already been taken by that forum’s moderator, TheDerpHowlsatMidnight. The majority of the Season 2 AU played out immediately before the premiere of Season 2 of the TV series, which saw Jake killed off in the first episode.

The sense that Jake was disposable predated his canon equivalent’s death, however. During the Season 2 AU, Audrey (then portrayed by Snafu Guru) was given a choice by Ghostface: spare the life of Brooke (portrayed by ThePlotMurderer) or Jake. Audrey chose Jake, in the most pivotal scene of the short-lived forum. Jake was subsequently attacked by Ghostface and was lingering in a coma by the time the forum went defunct that summer.

It was the Season 2 AU’s depiction of Jake’s fate that was adapted into The Story so Far in 2019, with the comatose Jake being murdered in his hospital bed two days after the attack.

Other Interpretations

Scream the TV Series

In the TV series, Jake’s “Behemoth” is a black truck. The SRU makes it a white Mustang convertible.

Season 1 AU

The brunt of Jake’s story in the Season 1 AU concerns a baseless rumor started by Amanda Steele, accusing Nina of cheating on Tyler with Jake, stirring up friction between Jake and Tyler.²⁶ It’s occasionally implied there may be some substance to this, but the subplot fizzles out by the forum’s second (and last completed) “episode”, with the two making peace and agreeing the “little losers” were just having one on.²⁷

Tyler implies that Jake has shit-talked previous hooks-ups before but, given the two are feuding at the time, it’s dubious whether or not this is true.²⁸

When Mr. Branson asks the class if any of them have ever lost a loved one, Jake raises his hand. Unfortunately, this is never explored further.²⁹

Trivia

Jake is a fan of dubstep and trap music.³⁰ He also listens to Drake.³¹

Jake is the only member of Lakewood Eyes to survive the Lakewood Slashings. He wasn’t so lucky in the Lakewood Thrashings, however.

Jake is a diehard Louisiana sports fan, and supports the New Orleans Saints. Not an easy task at the time.³² He isn’t nearly as loyal to the New Orleans Pelicans, however, and once forced Will to wear a Pelicans hat as an act of mocking debasement.³³

Jake is by no means cultured, and outright calls the “classics” boring, but he still read The Great Gatsby and developed at least a passing understanding of it, even if he didn’t complete Mr. Branson’s assignment.³⁴

Quotes

The Jake knows his limits, and this…is hella limiting.

Jake tells Tyler that one round with Nina was more than enough.

I don’t think I’m drunk…I know I am.

Jake assures Tyler that he knows himself

Bash? Shit, sorry, B, I been using the wrong tag…

Jake apologizes for misidentifying Brooke’s Big Beautiful Bash

Next time someone asks you to hand over your balls, Henderson…put up a fight, yeah? For me?

Jake offers Zach some basketball (and life) advice.

Gallery

1. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 21 ↩︎
2. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 5 ↩︎
3. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 7 ↩︎
4. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 5 ↩︎
5. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 2 ↩︎
6. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 29 ↩︎
7. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 30 ↩︎
8. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 2 ↩︎
9. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 1 ↩︎
10. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 4 ↩︎
11. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 5 ↩︎
12. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 7 ↩︎
13. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 15 ↩︎
14. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 17 ↩︎
15. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 21 ↩︎
16. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 30 ↩︎
17. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 1 ↩︎
18. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 4 ↩︎
19. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 15 ↩︎
20. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 21 ↩︎
21. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 4 ↩︎
22. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 21 ↩︎
23. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 21 ↩︎
24. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 7 ↩︎
25. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 15 ↩︎
26. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 16 ↩︎
27. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 234 ↩︎
28. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 92 ↩︎
29. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 206 ↩︎
30. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 2 ↩︎
31. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 30 ↩︎
32. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 17 ↩︎
33. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 30 ↩︎
34. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 17 ↩︎