Effy walked through the corridors of Tree Hill high with her backpack slung over one shoulder and her trusty skateboard tucked under her other arm. It was a somewhat beautiful day in North Carolina and Effy was in a somewhat good mood, in fact she was felt even better than that. Effy felt all bright and shiny as if nothing could ever bring her down again, after she tore down Dan and laid some serious home truths on him Effy felt rather liberated. No longer did she feel constricted by the fact that she was overlooked and generally ignored by her father like she was invisible, well aware that he had never wanted her in the first place. Effy had unburdened herself from the constraints that being the daughter of Dan Scott had placed on her ever since she was born, she was no free to do whatever she wanted and today was the start of a brand new Elizabeth Scott. Well technically it was the start of a brand new Effy as no longer Effy be Elizabeth Rose Scott, known commonly as Liz or Effy. From now on she would just be Effy. Just Effy with no last name as she no longer wanted to have the Scott name or people tied to that name weighing her day. Effy was over being oppressed by Dan and trying in desperate vain to get his attention, from now on she was going to be her own person and no longer have her self esteem and self worth torn down by people who were totally irrelevant and no longer mattered.

"Effy? Is that you?"

"Hello Jagelski." Effy replied, greeting her best friend with a bright smile as she took a few more steps closer to him.

"What the hell did you do to your hair?" Jake demanded and Effy glanced down briefly at her hair, sure it was a little different then how it had been two days ago but it was no big deal. So what if she had dyed it so was this black and purple colour. The top of her hair was it's usual jet black colour but the further her hair went the coulour subltly changed from black to a dark purple colour, gradually getting more lighter until the tips of Effy's hair was a very pastel purple colour. Effy suspected that Jake would be a tiny bit shocked but not this shocked.

"I dyed it."

"Your mom is going to freak." Jake replied after a moment and Effy just shrugged her shoulders, if she no longer cared what her dad thought why on earth would she care what her mother thought about her hair? Deb was never around and because of that Effy had been left under the lax supervision of Dan who simply didn't care about her. Even when her mother was around, Deb didn't pay Effy as much attention as she did Nathan although Effy had to admit that her mother wasn't as bad as Dan when it came to playing favourites. It didn't matter to Effy whether her family liked her hair because it was none of their concern, it was Effy's hair and she'd do to it whatever the hell she felt like. They had no say over it just like they had no say in her life anymore.

"So?" Effy pointedly questioned as her mother losing her temper over what she had done to Effy did not scare her in the slightest. Effy doubted her mother would even notice the change although Dan had and almost chocked on his coffee this morning.

"Can I ask why?"

"Why? Simply because I could and I wanted to Jake, I was in a real need for a change after what happened with Dan the other day and I figured why not? Might as well change my hair to go along with the changes in my life, mark the start of a new beginning for me." Effy stated as she fingered the ends of her hair.

"Dan's involved? Let me guess, this has something to do with that confrontation you had with him the other day? I have to admit that I was surprised that you didn't come over to my house or at least call and rant about how much of an ass your dad is. So spill Elizabeth, tell me what happened and explain how it all relates to this new hair of yours." Jake pressed and Effy couldn't shelf but not fight off a self assured smirk that was currently plastered all over her face.

"Well I waited until Dan came home from work and it all kind of went from there very quickly. There was a lot of yelling and shouting, mostly from me but Dan chipped in a bit when I laid down the home truths about him being a terrible father but mostly he got angry when I told him that I was the one who vandalized his car amongst other things. I have to admit things were pretty intense but I stuck my ground Jake, I told Dan what I felt and that I mattered despite the fact he couldn't care less about me. I wasn't nice about any of it in the slightest and there was a lot of name calling and I practically told Dan that he was the worst father in the world and so off before rounding off by calling him an ass and telling him that he didn't deserve me. Dan wasn't expecting to hear any of that and the fact that I have no respect for him and refuse to listen to him any longer is driving him nuts and he's doing everything he can to regain some control. Dan attempted to ground me and what not but he's too dumb to realize that I've always been two steps ahead of him." Effy proudly stated, retelling Jake most of what had happened with Dan as there was no way she was telling him about the sneaking out. Or the late night adventures joy riding in her father's car or the whole virginity thing. Jake may be her best friend but Effy knew there was no way she could tell him that stuff. As Jake would certainly make her stop all of that and Effy didn't want to. She liked the chaos of it all.

"So how does the hair play into this?" Jake asked as he leaned forward and touched Effy's hair.

"Well I've given up on Dan and Nathan as well. I don't give damn what they say or think about me anymore as I'm no longer going to have the two of them bring me down and feel like I'm irrelevant. I know that it's not right and I want to start living my own life completely separate from those two. I'm not going to be Dan Scott's daughter or Nathan Scott's twin sister. I realized that what I want matters and that me as a person matters and there is nothing wrong with me and there has never been anything wrong. If Dan and Nathan can't realize that then it's more their problem then it is mine as I'm not going to let them tear me down and make me feel irrelevant as well. I'm done with the inferiority complexes and fighting for a tiny bit of recognition as I know now that I don't need to be anything other than me and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to be just Effy and do whatever I want instead of doing what my family want Jake. I want to be my own person and most of all I want to be happy so the hair and everything else I've done and will do is because I can do it. I don't care about making other people happy anymore, all I want to do is make myself happy and I've started to do that by breaking free. All this time I was waiting and hoping that my family would see me and realize how great I am but they haven't and all that time waiting was chipping away at me. Until I realized that I'm not Cinderella or Snow White, I don't need to be waiting around for someone to save me when I'm more than perfectly capable of saving myself and the hair is part of that point. It's me breaking free and standing independent of my crazy family." Effy confidently explained with a wide smile as she no longer felt burdened by her family since she hit them where it hurt. Effy loved the freedom she got by slaying her own demons and finally being able to live her own life.

"Cinderella, eh?" Jake questioned with a small smile.

"You get the point." Effy replied with a quiet chuckle as she gently pushed Jake and moments later the two of them started walking towards the school building as they needed to get a move on as homeroom was going to start in less than ten minutes.

"I'm glad that you feel better after everything, you do seem a lot happier." Jake noted and Effy nodded along in agreement. "How'd Dan and Nathan take the hair? Or have they not seen it yet."

"Oh they have, Dan almost had a heart attack and came close to giving himself third degree burns over breakfast but he didn't say anything at least I don't think he did. I've kind of stopped paying any real attention to him as he's kind of irrelevant to me now and Nathan? Well he called me some kind of drugged up smurf, so I kicked him in the shin and then slashed his tires. Idiot should really know better by now not to piss me off and think he'll get away with it." Effy idly commented with a small chuckle as she thought about this morning's events.

"What is it with you and petty vandalism?" Jake asked with a serious look on his face and Effy could tell he wasn't happy about any of it, he was reacting like Effy had turned into some small time criminal, which she hadn't. She just liked causing damage to things that belonged to her family. Effy thought it was a good release for her anger and it was much better than her actually hitting people.

"Dan and Nathan had it coming as they are both assholes and I hate them, they deserved it Jake and don't pretend like you don't think otherwise. You know as well as I do that they had everything coming after what they've put me though these last few years!" Effy retorted.

"Effy destroying things isn't going to make any of this better, you know that right?"

"I know but it makes me feel better." Effy quipped and Jake didn't seem pleased to hear that and she could see a lecture coming her way.

"Elizabeth…"

"Why are you taking their side in all of this?!" Effy demanded in a very loud tone of voice as she was getting quite annoyed as by the sounds of it, Jake was taking Dan and Nathan's side in this when they were the ones in the wrong. She hadn't exactly done anything wrong and even if she did then the two of them were to blame. They had broken her, tore down her self esteem, made her feel worthless and had made her into someone who was like some kind of lap dog vying for any attention of any kind. Effy was just fighting back and gaining back what they had taken from her.

"I am not taking their side in this." Jake began.

"Yes you are! This isn't my fault, this is all on them and yet you're trying to make me out to be the bad guy in all of this but I'm not Jake! I thought you knew that but all you basketball idiots are all the same!" Effy retorted before deciding that she had enough of talking to Jake and stormed off.

"Effy! Elizabeth!" Jake called out but Effy just ignored him as she went off to find some better non basketball related company, preferably someone without a penis.