

Humiliated and upset, Sam leaves in tears.įiona opens Sam's acceptance letter from Princeton, and replaces it with a falsified rejection letter made in order to keep Sam working in the diner and as her slave. To retaliate, Shelby, Brianna and Gabriella perform a mean-spirited skit at a school pep rally, horrifying the school staff as the emails are read aloud and Sam's identity is revealed to Austin. After failing to convince Austin that they are "Cinderella", they present the emails to Shelby and convince her that Sam tried to steal Austin from her. Later on, Austin goes to the diner and is served by Sam, who attempts to tell him her identity, but is interrupted by Fiona.īrianna and Gabriella discover Sam's emails to Austin and realize that Sam is "Cinderella". Austin's friends gather girls from around campus who claim to be Cinderella and present them to Austin, but he isn't convinced by any of them. Sam is convinced that Austin will forget about her after the dance, so she is shocked to find he has put hundreds of posters round the school to try to identify her. Finally, Sam and Carter flee to the diner, and the staff attempts to stall Fiona to give Sam enough time to come back, which she does.

She gets delayed because Carter, who was Sam's ride back to the diner, was making out with Shelby, after he defended her from another boy trying to force himself on her. She also drops her cellphone on her way out, which is picked up by Austin. Sam has to go back to the diner before Fiona, and so she leaves without revealing her identity to Austin, unaware that she's named the homecoming princess along with Austin as the homecoming prince. The two share a romantic dance together, but while Sam learns "Nomad" is Austin, he does not recognize Sam under the mask. After a heart-to-heart with Carter and the diner staff, Sam attends the dance anyway, wearing a white masquerade mask and a wedding dress given to her by Rhonda as "Cinderella." Austin attends as Prince Charming. Meanwhile, Sam asks for the night off working in the diner to go to the dance, and Fiona refuses this request. Austin attempts to end his relationship with Shelby, who refuses to accept this and continues believing that they are together. "Nomad" and Sam plan to meet in the center of the dancefloor at the school's Halloween dance. His father, Andy, has arranged for his son to attend the University of Southern California with a football scholarship. Unknown to Sam, "Nomad"'s true identity is Austin Ames, the popular yet unhappy quarterback of the school's football team The Fighting Frogs, and Shelby's boyfriend. She also finds comfort in her best friend Carter Farrell, and in the diner staff, including Rhonda the manager, Eleanor, a waitress and Bobby the chef. Sam confides in her online pen pal "Nomad", who shares her dream to attend Princeton to become a writer. Sam also struggles to fit in at North Valley High School, where she’s bullied by the popular clique, including head cheerleader Shelby Cummings and her posse. Fiona withholds Sam's earnings and uses her inheritance to spend on luxuries for herself and her twins. Sam is trying to save money to attend her dream college, Princeton, but is regularly tormented by her stepfamily, which includes Fiona and her twin daughters Brianna and Gabriella. Fiona received ownership of the diner as well as the family inheritance after Sam's widowed father, Hal, died in the Northridge earthquake eight years prior and seemingly left no will. Seventeen-year-old Samantha "Sam" Montgomery is a waitress at Hal's Diner, a diner in the San Fernando Valley run by her stepmother, the vain and greedy Fiona. This is a happily ever after modernized twist of the legendery Cinderella story.

A modernization of the classic Cinderella folklore, the film's plot revolves around two internet pen pals who plan to meet in person at their high school's Halloween dance. The film was directed by Mark Rosman, written by Leigh Dunlap and starring Hilary Duff, Chad Michael Murray, Jennifer Coolidge, and Regina King. A Cinderella Story is a 2004 American teen romantic comedy film which was the first film of the " A Cinderella Story series".
