Freshman Orientation(2004)

SHORT VERSION:
One night on the campus’ grounds, the LGBT Club’s chairperson Sherman tries to sexually assault Clay, but he accidentally knocks Clay out. He panics and runs, and Brennan finds Clay seconds later and gets him to the medical office. Brennan tells a security guard that Clay was attacked by several homophobic frat guys, and though Clay tries to end the issue out of embarrassment by claiming that he simply fell, Brennan goes and tells the LGBT Club that Clay was gay-bashed. The club thus starts to organize a big protest in Clay’s honor.

The next night, Clay goes to a party at the Tau Iota sorority house to see Amanda, but there he finds out that Amanda had been feigning interest in him to complete a pledge task. Even though Amanda had developed actual feelings for him (despite thinking that he really is gay), he leaves with an aching heart. He later runs into his roommate Matt, who is drunk, and Matt suddenly tells him he loves him and kisses him, having recently accepted his own homosexuality. Clay responds to this in a manner that Matt finds insensitive, and he winds up spending the next couple of days avoiding Matt. The next day, Clay learns about the protest and how it is going to be taking place tomorrow night, and he is none too happy about it.

Amanda goes to an Intra-Greek Pledge Formal with Tazwell the same night as the protest, but she learns of his true nature when she catches him receiving fellatio from Tau Iota’s president Serena, and she tells him to get stuffed. Serena then explains that she did what she did to protect her from him, then makes another sexually suggestive come-on towards her before denying being a lesbian when Amanda calls her out on her repeated attempts to seduce her. Just then, the protestors storm the formal, thinking that Clay’s attackers are here, and they start a brawl. Clay appears moments later and gets everyone’s attention, first informing them that Sherman was his assailant and then admitting that he pretended to be gay all this time in order to get a girl to notice him, and he is now in love with her. He then tries to promote unity among everyone, but they ignore him and resume brawling. Clay then speaks with Amanda, who tells him that she is moving back to Pittsburgh, having had enough of him and this university.

The next day, Clay and Matt get to talking and restore their friendship, and he finds out that Matt now has a boyfriend. Clay later talks to Amanda and they both apologize to each other for their deception, and she decides to hold off on leaving to spend more time with him, and they share a kiss. Sherman is arrested for what he did to Clay and gets sentenced to community service.

LONG VERSION:
Over time, Clay (Sam Huntington) begins to feel bad about duping Amanda (Kaitlin Doubleday) with his homosexual façade, especially after she tells him one night that she really likes him and they kiss each other. Amanda, too, is regretting using Clay in order to complete her “Freak Fest” pledge challenge that will make her an official member of the Tau Iota sorority. Also, Tazwell (Bryce Johnson) begins to make romantic overtures towards Amanda, using his own charade of being a sensitive guy when his true aim is to get her into bed with him.

One night, Clay is accosted by Sherman (Jeffrey Muller) – the chairperson of the LGBT Club he has associated himself with – on the university’s grounds. Due to his attraction to Clay as well as having a delusional belief that Clay desires him and has just been teasing him up to this point, Sherman tries to have his way with Clay on the spot, despite Clay repeatedly refusing his advances. However, he backs Clay up into an emergency phone in the process, causing Clay to hit the back of his head on it and get knocked out. This makes Sherman panic and run, and Brennan (Michael Salinas) – a fellow LGBT Club member – appears moments later and sees Sherman fleeing but fails to see his face, and he has Clay brought to the campus’ medical office. While giving a report to a security guard investigating the matter, Brennan exaggerates the event by claiming without certainty that Clay was attacked by several homophobic fraternity guys. Clay – having already regained consciousness – appears in the middle of this and finds out what Brennan just told the guard, and undoubtedly too embarrassed by what happened to make any more of an issue out of it, he tells the guard that he simply hurt himself in a fall, then orders Brennan to go home after he objects to his statement. Brennan angrily goes, but in parting tells Clay and the guard that they have not heard the last of him.

The next day, Brennan tells the LGBT Club that Clay was the victim of gay-bashing and that campus security is trying to cover it up, plus Clay isn’t pressing any charges and won’t admit that it happened. Marjorie (Marla Sokoloff) moves that they mobilize every oppressed group on campus and organize a protest because this is more than just an issue about homosexuality, and everyone pledges their support (as does Sherman, in an effort to remove himself from any scrutiny on the incident). When Clay meets with Amanda that same day, he asks her about the party going on at the Tau Iota house tonight (which is the night that the pledges are supposed to dump the guys they picked for the challenge after getting the guys to declare their love for them), but out of wanting to protect him, she replies that it is not a good idea for him to come, plus Tazwell will be stopping by. Confused, Clay asks her what is going on, and she tells him that she can’t be around him anymore, then leaves his presence.

Clay shows up to the party anyway and finds her, and despite her insisting that he needs to get out of here, he tells her that he needs to tell her something, having decided to come clean about his true sexual orientation. They go outside to talk, and he tells her that he is in love with her, but then Serena (Jud Tylor) – the president of Tau Iota – steps out and applauds Amanda for getting him to say that. Moments later, Amanda’s friend and fellow pledge Jessica (Heather Matarazzo) chases after a crying Rahib (Jagan Gupta) after she just dumped him, clearly having developed a genuine attraction to him, and then Clay sees a wheelchair-bound guy inside getting dumped by another sorority sister. He realizes that Amanda faked being interested in him as part of her initiation into the sorority, so he leaves, and a remorseful Amanda tries to go after him but is halted by Serena. While walking back to his dorm room, Clay runs into his roommate Matt (Mike Erwin), who has spent the evening getting drunk. He tells Clay he loves him and then kisses him, having recently accepted his own homosexuality, and Clay replies that the kiss was “freaky” and that he is just plastered right now. Matt tearfully expresses how frustrated he is over how he loves him but yet his affections will never be returned, but Clay responds by asking him to not make this weirder than it already is. Unhappy with Clay’s reaction, Matt walks away, and Clay winds up spending the next couple of days avoiding him.

The next morning, Clay notices that posters have been put up around the campus sporting his picture coupled with him being labeled as a “survivor of hate”, and there is an announcement on them stating that a protest against hate crimes is being held in his honor tomorrow night. Clay finds Marjorie and explains to her that Sherman had attacked him, then admits he lied about being gay and only did it to get a girl to like him. Having never liked Clay even before he began his charade, Marjorie doesn’t believe what he has said about Sherman and insults him for lying about his sexuality before telling him that the rally is going ahead, with or without him. Meanwhile, Amanda wants to call Clay very badly but fully believes that he has no interest in talking to her, so she decides to focus on going to the Intra-Greek Pledge Formal with Tazwell, which is scheduled to take place the same night as the protest.

While the protest and pledge formal get underway, Clay decides to take his mind off things by studying in the library. He eventually spots one of his professors, Jackson (Sherri Marina), smoking marijuana in there, and she invites him to partake in it. Jackson tells Clay that she knows he isn’t really gay but isn’t mad at him because people his age are dying to be anyone but themselves and avoid that four-year-long journey to the inevitable conclusion that each person is just the sum of their parts. Clay replies that maybe things will turn out differently for him, so Jackson encourages him to go and be bold, after which Clay departs. At the formal, Serena borrows Tazwell from Amanda claiming to need his assistance for something, but after they walk off, Amanda becomes suspicious about them. She follows them and catches Serena giving Tazwell oral sex in a private room, exposing Tazwell’s true nature to her, though Serena stops the act soon after Amanda walks away, having only done it to keep Amanda away from Tazwell since she was a victim of his in the past. When Tazwell returns to Amanda, she tells him to get stuffed and leaves him, then Serena approaches her and says she did what she did for her own good. She then makes another of her many sexually suggestive come-ons towards Amanda, to which Amanda tells her that all she has to do is ask to sleep with her if that’s what she wants. Serena responds by doing an about-face and loudly denying being a lesbian.

As Amanda attempts to leave the formal, the protestors come storming in, believing that the fraternity guys who attacked Clay are here somewhere. As things devolve into an all-out brawl, Clay shows up, gets on the stage, and gets everyone’s attention over a microphone. He first informs everyone that Sherman was the one who attacked him because he rejected his advances, and after Sherman yells that Clay wanted him and led him on, Marjorie angrily tells him that “no” means “no” regardless of gender. She then drives her knee into his nuts and exchanges a smile with Clay over it (after once again telling him to go screw himself) while a few of the protestors drag Sherman away. Clay then confesses that he is not really gay and only pretended to be in order to get a girl to notice him, shocking Amanda, and then says that he loves that girl. He then pleads with everyone to stop fighting and says that there is not much difference between any of them, but when he tries to promote unity by encouraging everyone to do a group hug, they refuse this and get back to brawling. Clay then stops Amanda as she is heading for the door and tries to explain himself, but she scolds him for lying just to get into her pants. He admits that his intentions with her did start out that way, but it turned into something else, and he brings up how she wasn’t honest with him, either. He then offers to walk her back to the sorority house, but she replies that she is returning home to Pittsburgh, having had enough of him and this university, and then departs.

The next day, Clay finally gets to chatting with Matt in their dorm room, and they iron out the wrinkles between them. Clay also finds out that Matt has gotten himself a boyfriend in the interim when he walks into the room for a second. After giving Matt and his new beau some alone time, Clay heads down to the Dorothy’s Shoes bar to speak to Rodney (John Goodman), the bartender who taught him how to be a better homosexual, and he admits to him that he is straight and is in love with a woman. Fortunately, Rodney is not angry with him, but feels rather honored that a straight man would want to be gay. He tells Rodney that he put on this façade to win Amanda’s affections, but now she hates him, and he then asks Rodney what he should do. Rodney replies that he needs to be fierce and be the man his mother made him be.

Clay later finds Amanda sitting on a bench waiting for her bus back to Pittsburgh, so he sits down next to her, and she soon tells him that the Taus revoked her scholarship, but her aunt got her a job back home at a makeup counter. She and Clay both admit that they screwed up, and he tells her that being her friend was the best thing that ever happened to him, and he thinks that the time he spent being gay made him a decent straight man. Amanda confesses that she misses hanging out with him, but Clay assures her that he is still the same guy. Her bus pulls up moments later, but when it leaves, we find out that she has decided to stay with Clay for a little while longer when we see them still sitting on the bench and sharing a kiss.

During the credits, Serena and Tazwell are shown to have become a couple (even though their romantic connection is quite wonky), and Jessica reconciles with Rahib and gets intimate with him. Sherman gets arrested for what he tried to do to Clay and gets sentenced to community service, and Marjorie is shown not enjoying the lesbian lifestyle as much as she thought she would.