A Cinderella Story

Substitute a cell phone for a glass slipper, a Mercedes for a coach and the San Fernando Valley for a land far, far away, and you've got the traditional, but modern version of Cinderella. Except in this one there are mean cheerleaders who think Sam, who is comforted by her best friend, Carter, has stolen Austin from the head cheerleader, Shelby.

No matter how many times this fairytale has been changed, I don't think anyone could have ever thought of it as a modern version like this one. In this story, Cinderella and Prince Charming are Samantha Montgomery and Austin Ames, two high school students in two totally different crowds. He's the popular football captain and student body president who's father wants him to play at USC. She is an orphan living with her evil step-mother and step-sisters who work 7 days a week and is working very hard to graduate early and get out of the currently drought-stricken San Fernando Valley, California. The one thing they have in common and brings them together is their dream to go to Princeton. "Princeton is where princes go to college and where princesses go to meet their princes."
Sam and Austin have been e-mailing and texting each other for a month now, after meeting a Princeton chat room, and have yet to find out who each other really is. All they know is that the opposite person goes to their school. Austin proposes they meet at the dance. Sam agrees and when she starts to think she's going to have a good day, her step-mother, Fiona, makes her work the night shift so she'll have to miss the dance. After some persuasion and searching for the perfect costume, Rhonda (kind of a fairy godmother figure) finds her the perfect outfit. Same makes her grand entrance and meets her prince charming and is very surprised to find it's the most popular guy in school. But he doesn't know who she is because she wears a mask all night long. Sam also has to make it back to the diner, her family owns, before Fiona finds out she went to the dance and never gets a chance to tell Austin who she really is.
While she is trying to get away she drops her cell phone and Austin picks it up and begins his quest for the girl it belongs to. After posting fliers and talking to several girls he starts to think it's all a dream and he'll never find her again, until... Brianna and Gabriella, Sam's step-sisters, set out to destroy their sister after the see her at the dance where Sam accidentally won Princess with Austin. Sam is humiliated when her step-sisters gives the e-mails between her and Austin to his ex-girlfriend and the cheerleaders make a mean skit about her in front of the whole school during a pep rally. To make it worse, Fiona throws away Sam's long-awaited acceptance letter to Princeton and lies to her by giving her a fake rejection letter.

She's soon the laughing stock of North Valley High School. In a fit of self-confidence she tells off Fiona, moves out and seeks out Austin in the men's locker room before the big homecoming game to tell him how she really feels. Sam and her best friend, Carter, decide to go to the came, but near the very end, Same decides she can't tale being there anymore and starts to leave. Austin, who is on the field at this time, sees her start to leave. He tells off his father and throws away his father's dream of him playing football for USC, to confront Sam in the bleachers. While they're in the stands, it starts to rain, thus ending a drought and the Fighting Frogs win their game, even without Austin.

Sam soon finds her father's will, which everyone thought didn't exist. It named her soul heir to everything, cars, house, diner, etc. She sells all the cars for tuition money and that's when we find out Fiona has been lying about everything. Sam and Austin decide to go to Princeton together, well, after Brianna and Gabriella gave her the real acceptance letter. They're a happy couple right now, but hey, they're only freshman, anything can happen.

This whole story is about hiding behind a mask to keep from showing what's really on he outside. Sam isn't afraid to show who she really is on the outside, until she finds out her pen pal is non other than Austin, a popular jock on campus. Austin, on the other hand, is to afraid to tell his father he wants to go to Princeton and not USC. As well as not being able to show his real self to anyone, but Sam through their e-mails and texts. She gets him to open up and she the world who he really is.