Plot

A French foreign-exchange student comes to a small Texas high school, befriends a classmate, and practically takes over her life.

A French foreign exchange student, named Genevieve, comes to a small town in Texas to attend a local high school where she shacks up with the school's popular head cheerleader, Starla, and her parents. But Starla soon learns that this French girl is not only smart, attractive, and naive, but quite conniving when Geneviere, with no social life of her own, begins to take over Starla's, starting with stealing the affections her parents, her friends and Starla's boyfriend. When Starla is forced to quit the cheerleading squad after getting some bad grads, Genevieve moves in to take her place. When Starla figures out that Genevieve deliberately set it up by giving her bad tutoring to fail all those classes, she begins an all-out personal war against Genevieve to take back her social life. But Genevieve is anticipating exactly that type of response from Starla and soon turns everyone, including Starla's friends and family, against her by playing the poor victim and making it appear that Starla's the aggressor.—Anonymous

Starla Grady is the head cheerleader with everything at. Until Genevieve Le Plouff, a Parisian foreign exchange student, moves in with Starla's family to help Starla's grades and to absorb American life. At first glance, Genevieve appears to be the typical fish out of water--following Starla around with unwavering admiration of her wonderful life. However, when Genevieve is featured on the front of the school newspaper and steals Starla's friends and boyfriend, she fights to get it all back!—Elton P

High school student Starla Grady (Jane McGregor) is the popular head cheerleader and pageant queen of the small town of Splendora, Texas, who aspires to be a news anchorwoman. She hosts a French exchange student, an orphan named Genevieve Le Plouff (Piper Perabo). Starla was forced to take on the exchange program, since she had low grades in French at school and a French roommate might help with that.

Doreen Gilmore (Christen Coppen) is an activist student and the most hated person in school as she opposes all the shallow celebrations of beauty that the schoolgirls are forced to participate in. Starla announces on stage that she will host an exchange student, to win the beauty pageant, as her "God is everything" answer was stolen by her friend and fellow contestant Ashley.

The seemingly shy and harmless Genevieve is immediately in awe of Starla's beauty and popularity. Starla holds a huge reception for Genevieve and introduces her to her friends and boyfriend Karl. Starla also shows Genevieve her checklist on the way to being a news anchorwoman and the video she is making to audition for one of the competitions on campus. She reveals that her video was edited at a professional news studio. Ed Mitchell (Trent Ford) is Genevieve's first friend at school. Ed is the school newspaper photographer and thus covers a large part of Starla's career. Genevieve avoids her picture being taken

However, after winning the affections of Starla's parents (Bootsie Grady (Julie White) & Arnie Grady (Brandon Smith)), friends (Ashley Lopez (Alexandra Adi) & Tanner Jennings (Nicki Aycox)), and boyfriend Kyle (Matt Czuchry), Genevieve soon begins to take over Starla's life. Starla's parents allow Genevieve to call them mom and dad, and she is considered a regular part of their family.

Ed decides to do a full page on Genevieve, and cuts Starla out of the picture completely. Starla is furious, but is forced to smile as this was always meant to be a "community" project as per her pledge in the beauty pageant. Ed's article makes Genevieve very famous in school. She also records Starla saying mean things about everyone at school, including her French teacher, who is aroused by teenage girls.

When Starla is forced to quit the cheer-leading squad after receiving a failing grade in French (Starla was given 1 week by her professor to improve her grade, but Genevieve teaches her all wrong (via a tape she recorded for her) and Starla ends up failing yet again), Genevieve moves in to take her place, and then the roles are reversed. Soon, Genevieve is the popular head cheerleader, and Starla is the unpopular student.

Starla finds out that Genevieve sabotaged her, but she can't find the tape Genevieve made for her to prove her accusation. Then Genevieve does seductive dances with Kyle to steal him away from Starla. Starla attacks Genevieve, but she is saved by Ashley and Tanner, who retort that Starla cannot stand even a little bit of spotlight on anyone other than herself and that Genevieve has been nothing but a total slave to Starla. Soon, Genevieve is the homecoming queen. everyone is the school is wearing Berets and she is the news anchor for the school. Genevieve also replaces Starla in the News Anchor Competition (which comes with a scholarship to study full-time to become a news anchor)

As a final nail in the coffin, Genevieve gives Starla the French lessons tape back, as an apology. But when Starla plays this tape in her French class (to convince her French teacher), it was her own voice berating everybody in the school. Genevieve had tricked her again. Framed by Genevieve, Starla is arrested for possessing a knife and getting high on mushrooms. Genevieve impersonates Starla's parents on the phone and asks the sheriff to keep her in the slammer over the weekend. She is then bailed out of jail by her younger brother Randolph (Jesse James) and her classmate Ed Mitchell.

Starla remembers something about Genevieve and rushes home to pick a tape. She heads with Ed and Randolph to the venue to the news anchor competition. Starla eventually exposes that Genevieve was, in fact, a former elementary school classmate named Clarissa Fogelsey, whom Starla had embarrassed so badly (Clarissa stuck her tongue on the ass of an ice statue in 3rd grade, as Starla told her to kiss the ice statue for good luck) that she felt compelled to move to France and has returned in disguise to exact revenge on Starla.

With her charade exposed, Genevieve leaves town in disgrace and Starla reclaims her status in school and town. Although Starla never achieved her goals of becoming a reporter or obtaining a college scholarship, she now feels that she is a changed person. She also begins a relationship with Ed after breaking up with Kyle. Meanwhile, Genevieve, posing as Starla, is welcomed by her new adoptive French family upon her arrival in Paris.