ok, let me try to clear up my vibes... 1. MC's mother is from a rich family, Jill IS from a rich family (Royce)... 2. MC's mother died, Jill's sister also died... so if my hunch is right (which is a long shot btw), it might be just like game of thrones...
my favorite theory is that they both died in the same incident... not the same person! ofc that means Jill needs to be a few years older then what she currently is portrayed as in game a 3rd year student (if she was Arieth with 8 years under her belt and still on the 1st year it would be perfect)
and yes its game of thrones Jill is an inbreed just as most "royal" families with all the kissing cousins! from the time of the founding of the university where this happens there´s been enough time for 4 to 5 generations mixing around she´s probably cousin on the 3rd degree with rusty and Sage (another of my theories Sage being a burgmeister and thus her strained relationship with her family and their demand for "class" the only problem being she doesn't look as affected as Jill so maybe her father said screw it went for a plebeian and lost half of his wealth in the process? or her mother could smell the "cousin" on all her pretenders and went for a dude like the MC so an able nice on the eye and most importantly that wont give her retarded babies)
As for Derek actually being a genius it does make sense! I mean his sister is on the top brackets of must humans with ending high school with cum laude (not that smart going for a feminism degree but hey that is misguided youth for you) (depending on the size of the high school if you add in all the drop outs and those that stay behind she was the best between 100 and 300 people ) !
Although one must wonder where he gets his information to finish the test? As Einstein said intelligence is how well you combine the information you have, not that it creates it out of nowhere, maybe a genius combined with a photographic memory?
Which raises a major problem! Intelligence is also linked to emotional sensitivity/instability so if Derek is indeed a genius we might be witnessing his downfall he was with Tommy on the basement doing drugs most likely as Tommy was squeezing him for information about the MC without him even realizing Tommy using him! I suspect it wasn't the 1st time that blabbermouth spilled the beans on the MC and ruined the finishing part with Josie on episode 1 !
but that is an explosive combination if someone who is too smart for his own good and sensitive feels guilty for a mistake he made and might cost him someone he really cared about ... we might be witnessing a downward spiral into despair drugs and mental instability, i mean how do you juggle your best friend doing your lesbian sister and her girlfriend ? How can you make emends to the girl you like when you did Wendy? I mean if you cheat on her with Jessica Simpson or a really extremely hot girl its like ... understandable but for Wendy? COME ON MAN WHATS WRONG WITH YOU!
probably i´m overthinking it but i always have to take 2 months before going at AL again so i aint underestimating DPC
I don't think Derek's IQ is so important, indeed if he were particularly intelligent, his behavior would be even more "condemnable"
then he is certainly not obtuse, he is quick of mind as shown by his ideas for the joke at the Jocks or knowing how to integrate among the guests of the Preps.
the way he is described is also realistic, the classic person apparently always high, always cheerful, but deeply depressed. who doesn't know someone like that?
its quite the other way the higher the IQ the quirkier is the person, they see feel and understand things way above regular people so they are always misunderstood on why they act as they do! In my theory its because he understood that he would never be able to be good enough for daddy so he decided to disarm him! Just that alone makes him smarter then Maya!
unlike Maya who remained on the "please love me daddy" path which in fact if you analyse her relationship with the MC she keeps at it, that´s your incest right there she switched daddy for "daddy"!
as for Bella or Jill winning a competition against Josie? whats wrong with you people didn't your mommy held you enough time when you where babies? Seriously (i wrote 29 lines of pure hatred ranting but decided it was too much and erased it)