at the pep rally

"Give it up for Diner Girl!"

"Diner Girl! Diner Girl! Diner Girl!"

Sam could feel the world tilting beneath her, but she didn't hear the chants. Her head ached. Her ears were buzzing. How had they gotten her emails? Who would be so cruel as to hack her acc- The Tweedledum Twins? She didn't think they'd even know how to sign in if they had her password right in front . . .

'Oh,' she realised, a sick feeling settling in the pit of her stomach. 'I left my computer logged in when Brianna was harping about her homework. If she saw . . .'

Fighting back frustrated tears, she shot a look at Austin, wondering what was going through his head; he glanced back at her over his shoulder before slumping in his seat.

'Why didn't she just tell me who she was at the dance?' he thought. 'Or was this part of some weird plan to humiliate me?' He turned again, only to see she was gone.

She had bolted from the pep rally and run until she could barely hear the crowd anymore. She closed her eyes and took several slow, steady breaths.

"Sam?"

Great. Now she was hearing his voice when she was trying to calm down.

"Samantha?" he tried again.

Her eyes shot open. "Austin? Wh-what are you doing here?"

"I . . . Uh . . . I need to know -" His face showed a jumble of emotions. "Why didn't you . . . All those emails, chat room sessions, the dance - Why didn't you tell me who you were?"

She took a shaky breath. "I wasn't sure how you'd react. I mean . . . I was surprised when I found out who you were. And I tried to tell you at the diner that one time you came in for coffee, but then Fiona came in and started nagging me and - Well . . . If I had come up to you and said, 'It's me, Austin; I'm the one you've been looking for; I'm Cinderella,' what would you have said?"

He pondered this for a moment. "I would have said the same thing I said to the other girls claiming to be Cinderella . . . 'Okay, Cinderella. The girl I spent all that time with dropped something at the dance. What was it?'"

"My phone. And I'm guessing you saw some pretty strange messages from my stepmother, which might explain your annoyance when asking your question."

He ran a hand over his hair. "Yeah, sorry about that. I just - I got sick of all the girls claiming to be the girl I danced with that magical night and -"

"I get it. You're the guy every girl in school wants to be with, right? If my stupid phone hadn't fallen off my shoe, would you have even bothered trying to find me? You want to know why you didn't recognise me? It was because you didn't want to recognise me." She cast her eyes skyward. What wouldn't she give to see storm clouds now?

He placed a hand on her elbow to keep her from running away again. "Look, I'm sorry. We both hid our identities. But, when I took my mask off, you kept yours. And I couldn't stop thinking about you after you ran off that night. The phone just gave me a way to make sure it was really, you know, you. The girl I'd think about between classes. The girl whose emails I couldn't wait to read. And how did they get our emails?"

She shook her head. "I wish I knew. I guess . . . I guess one of my stepsisters got on my computer and printed them out. It's my fault, Austin; I should have logged out whenever I left my room," she muttered.

A long moment passed awkwardly between them.

"M-maybe it doesn't matter how I found out," he opined. "We both know who the other is now. The masks are off."

"So, where do we go from here?" she asked with restrained hope.

He smiled. "We could go someplace and talk. Get to know each other all over again."

She smiled back and took the hand he'd extended to her. "Hi, I'm Samantha Montgomery. It's nice to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Samantha. I'm Austin Ames."