Sam Montgomery lives in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, with her widowed father

Hal, who runs a popular sports-themed diner. Feeling Sam needs a mother, Hal marries a vain
and selfish gold digger named Fiona, who has socially-awkward fraternal twin daughters, Brianna
and Gabriella, believing (wrongly) that Fiona will be a good mother. During the 1994 Northridge
earthquake, Hal is killed when he runs to save Fiona. Having supposedly left no will, Fiona
receives all of his belongings, including the house, the diner, and to her dismay, Sam.
Eight years later, Sam is employed as a waitress at the diner to save money to attend Princeton
University, but she is regularly tormented by her stepfamily, who constantly insult her and treat
her as if they were popular, despite being regarded as obnoxious. Even worse, Fiona, in her
vanity, uses the inheritance to live as if they were insanely rich, including spending on minor
facial surgeries, and even refuses to save water during the ongoing drought. She also
transformed the diner into something befitting of her own vain image, and demands that salmon
be served and included in over half the dishes. Sam struggles to cope socially at North Valley
High School, where queen bee cheerleader Shelby Cummings also torments her and calls her
"Diner Girl", along with other members of the popular clique.
Sam confides in her online pen pal "Nomad" about her dream to attend Princeton, a dream which
he also shares. However, Nomad's true identity is Austin Ames, the popular, yet unhappy,
quarterback of the school's football team and Shelby's ex-boyfriend, although she refuses to
accept that he has broken up with her. He is unhappy because Austin's father planned for him to
go to the University of Southern California with a football scholarship rather than going to
Princeton. Nomad proposes that they meet in person at the school's Halloween-themed
homecoming dance. On the night of the dance, Fiona orders Sam to work the night shift at the
diner, then leaves to drive Brianna and Gabriella to the dance. Initially reluctant, Sam is
convinced by her best friend, Carter Ferrell, to go to the dance and meet her mysterious online
friend.
Rhonda, Sam's other best friend, and the rest of the diner staff also convince her to disobey
Fiona and go to the dance anyway. Sam, wearing a mask and a beautiful white dress, meets
Nomad at the dance, and is surprised to learn that he is Austin, who had become smitten with
her upon her entrance. The two decide to leave the party to walk alone and get to know each
other a little better. While sharing a romantic dance, Sam and Austin begin to fall in love. But just
as Austin is about to unmask her, Sam's cell phone alarm goes off, warning her to return to the
diner before Fiona returns at midnight. She leaves without revealing her identity to Austin, and
drops her phone on the way out.
Austin picks up her phone and begins a desperate search to figure out who his "Cinderella" really
is, but every girl at school claims to be the mysterious owner of the phone. Sam is reluctant to
reveal her identity to Austin, feeling that he will not accept her due to her being ordinary and
Austin being popular. When Austin comes into the diner one day, Sam is forced to help him and,
after a talk, she attempts to reveal her identity to him, but is cut off by Fiona. Sam's stepsisters
end up discovering Sam and Austin's email relationship, and (after having failed to convince
Austin that one of them is the owner of the phone) convince Shelby that Sam tried to steal Austin
from her. During a pep rally, they and the other cheerleaders humiliate Sam in front of the entire
school and expose her identity, as well as naming her an impostor. Austin, hurt by Sam's
secrecy, does not step up to defend her, and Sam leaves the pep rally in tears.
Like Austin, Sam had been accepted at Princeton, only to be duped by Fiona into believing she
was rejected by having a fake rejection letter made to keep Sam working at the diner and as her
servant. Sam then decides to give up on her dreams and resigns herself to working at the diner,
but Rhonda gives Sam a pep talk not to lose hope. When her stepsisters come into the diner,
they slam the door, causing a guitar to fall off the wall, tearing the wallpaper down with it, and
blame it on Sam. Sam then sees her father's words, "Never let the fear of striking out keep you
from playing the game," on the wall and regains her confidence (in real life, this quote came
from Babe Ruth). She stands up to Fiona and her stepsisters stating that she will no longer put
up with their emotional abuse, quits her job at the diner, and moves in with Rhonda, who also
quits along with the entire diner staff, all of whom had only put up with so many years of Fiona's
abuse after Hal's death for Sam's sake. The customers, who witness the entire scene, promptly
leave in disgust as well.
Before the school's homecoming football game, Sam confronts Austin about his cowardice and
not defending her at the pep rally. Before the final play of the game, he sees Sam making her
way out of the stands, and finally stands up to his father, saying he wants to attend Princeton
rather than simply play football all his life. He chases after Sam and apologizes. She accepts his
apology, and they share their first kiss as rain falls over the drought-plagued valley (at the same
time, the North Valley High Fighting Frogs win the football game). Soon after, Sam finds Hal's will
hidden in her childhood fairy-tale book, stating that all of his money and possessions actually
belong to her. Since this leaves her as the rightful and legal owner, Sam sells her stepfamily's
fancy cars so that she can pay for college, and Fiona, who signed the will as a witness but claims
to have never seen it before, is arrested for financial fraud and violating California's child labor
laws for all the times she made Sam work long hours at the diner in spite of her being a minor.
Sam finds that she was in fact accepted at Princeton; the acceptance letter is retrieved from the
garbage by her stepsisters, who knew where Fiona hid it. Fiona, Brianna, and Gabriella are
made by the District Attorney to work off the money they stole from Sam at the diner, which is
restored to its former glory by its new owners, Sam and Rhonda. Also, Austin's father comes to
accept his son's desire to attend Princeton. Things even work out in the end for Carter as he
makes a commercial for acne medication. Shelby, having previously rejected Carter for being an
outcast even after he was a proper gentleman to her at the Halloween dance, aims to pursue him
since he is now popular, but after finally seeing her true shallow and cruel nature, he turns her
down for Astrid, the high school's goth DJ and announcer. The film ends with Sam and Austin,
now officially a couple, driving off to Princeton together after Sam gets her phone back from
Austin.

Cast