A/N: Thank you to the people who left reviews! I'm really glad you like the idea of filling in the gaps. I hate it when Mark leaves us with things like that don't make any sense. (Don't get me wrong, I loved the flashbacks, I'm such a huge Leyton shipper it isn't even funny, but still...explaining how they came to be would've been much better.)
Accuracy
Scene Two
Peyton Sawyer examined her reflection in the mirror as a hairdresser fastened the strings of the plastic sheet that had been draped over behind her neck. She pinched her lips together thoughtfully.
"So what can I do ya for?" The woman strolled around to Peyton's left and crossed her arms. Her eyes gave her away: she was already combing and coloring and trimming Peyton's blonde curls in her mind.
"I was thinking of something new and different!" She cocked her head to one side, examining her reflection in the mirror, and then promptly tilted it to the other. "A dye job, I guess. I just want something fresh. I'm thinking of going lighter, brighter blonde."
The woman pressed her thumb and index finger to her chin and nodded her head, reminding Peyton of The Thinker statue. "How much lighter?"
"Mmm…" She bobbed her head back and forth. "A lot."
The woman pulled open a drawer under the mirror and flipped through a small pamphlet and folded back the pages before handing it to Peyton. "Check that page out. Anything you like?" She ran her doll-like hand over her spiky, purple tipped tomboy cut as her customer examined the book.
"That one."
The hairdresser peered over Peyton's shoulder. A slight frown graced her thin lips. "You sure?"
"Well I was." Peyton tilted her head back, eyeing the woman from an angle. "You think it'll look bad?"
"Mmm." She pressed her hands to the side of Peyton's head and ran her fingers over Peyton's golden curls until she reached the end. "Not exactly. It's just, in my experience, light colors like that often look better with longer hair. Usually people with hair like yours go away pretty upset if they go through with this."
"Oh." The glowing grin she'd worn into the shop that morning promptly faded in the same way that the sun's light does as the fog moves in.
"Well," the woman tugged gently at Peyton's curls, "there is something else we could do, if you're willing. And we could still use that color."
Her eyes flickered excitedly. "What's that?"
"Have you ever had extensions?"
Peyton frowned again, but not gloomily as before. "No…"
"Would you consider trying them?"
Peyton stared at her reflection again. She chewed her lower lip lightly. "You really think that would look good?"
"It would definitely look much better with that color."
"Hmm." Peyton squared her shoulders. "What the hell, why not? Sure! I'll give it a go!"
"Positive?"
"Yes!" She grinned. "A new style for a new start, that's what I came in here for anyway, isn't it? So why not go all out?"
The woman laughed as she grabbed her comb. "Just graduated?"
"How'd you know?"
"I tend to get a lot like you, wanting something a little more interesting before they set sail for somewhere far away from Tree Hill. Where ya goin'?"
"L.A." Peyton eased back into the chair as the woman raked the comb through her Goldilocks head of hair. "It's just an internship over the summer though, but…still, it's a whole new world. I don't want to be the same old Tree Hill Peyton Sawyer, I really want to stick out. You never know, maybe I'll get lucky?"
The woman merely nodded, glancing up only slightly to watch Peyton's reflection as she happily chattered away about her ambitions. She'd heard similar stories many times before, year after year. She wondered if this time would be any different: if this girl, Peyton Sawyer, would be one of the few who realized her dreams and was happy, or whether she'd come to discover that she didn't like the end result and want back what she'd lost. She smiled briefly as she moved to Peyton's left and rummaged through the drawer for the dye Peyton had requested. "Only time will tell."
