Just One of the Guys(1985)

Submitted by Tornado Dragon

SHORT VERSION:
Terry’s charade as a man falls apart at Sturgis-Wilder’s high school prom when her ex-boyfriend Kevin shows up wanting to reconcile with her and asks her why she is wearing men’s clothes. Terry’s friend Rick – whom she has already fallen for – then comes up to them and asks Kevin who he is, and Kevin tells him that he is Terry’s boyfriend. He then tells Terry that he knows she still loves him and wants to work this out, but she replies that she doesn’t love him anymore and has fallen for someone else now. She then takes the confused Rick somewhere private and confesses that she is a woman, and when he doesn’t believe her, she shows him her breasts as proof. She tries to explain to him that she was only pretending to be a man for an article that she was writing for a contest for a summer internship at the Sun-Tribune, and she tells him that she thinks that he is a terrific guy and he means a lot to her, but he walks away from her, angry over having been deceived like this. She stops him on the dance floor and kisses him in front of everyone, but Rick derisively informs the surprised crowd about Terry’s true gender before taking off. The embarrassed Terry leaves moments later, ignoring Kevin as she goes. When she returns home and starts to type up her story about her experiences as a man, she fights back tears thinking about Rick, and she decides to include how she has fallen for him.

Terry returns to Pearl High, and her article gets published in the Sun-Tribune and she wins the contest, but she feels miserable without Rick. However, one day, when Buddy meets her outside the Sun-Tribune’s headquarters in her car so he can take her home from work, Rick suddenly appears. He admits that he misses her and gets confirmation from her that she still feels the same way about him as she did in her article, and they agree to go out dancing on Friday night. They then decide to go for a drive right then and there, and when Terry asks Buddy if he is coming along, a beautiful female motorcyclist shows up and exchanges looks of mutual interest with Buddy, so he decides to depart with her.

LONG VERSION:
During her time masquerading as a man at Sturgis-Wilder High School, Terry (Joyce Hyser) is called into the office of Mr. Mendosa (Ramon Chavez), the editor of the school’s newspaper, to go over the story she wants to submit to the Sun-Tribune newspaper in order to win a contest for a summer internship there. He tells Terry that, while she has great writing skills, her overall paper lacks excitement, and this helps her to understand that her gender and good looks played no part in the past rejection of this same story back at Edwina Pearl High School. Mendosa informs her that he won’t choose the contest winners until a week from Monday, so he wants her to try again and think of something exciting to write about this time. Later on, while conversing with her friend Denise (Toni Hudson) and her brother Buddy (Billy Jayne) about this, she decides to keep on pretending to be a man until the deadline because she feels that there is potential for a good story to come out of this experience.

As part of her plan, she resolves to make any friends that she can find, so she befriends Rick (Clayton Rohner), whom she met during her first day at Sturgis-Wilder. She eventually improves him with an image makeover and encourages him to start talking to women so he can get a date for the upcoming prom, and she also spurs him to stand up to the bully Tolan (William Zabka) and embarrass him publicly, which earns Rick his enmity. Soon after the incident, Tolan is dumped by his girlfriend Deborah (Deborah Goodrich) due to her having grown tired of his attitude, and when Rick asks her out to the prom, she accepts. When Rick informs Terry about his success afterwards, he tells her that she must double-date with him or else he won’t go, so that night, Terry persuades Denise to act as her prom date. While doing so, Denise deduces that Terry is starting to fall for Rick, but she dismisses this notion, saying that Rick is just “research” for her article.

As all of the above goes on, Terry also finds herself having to fend off the advances of Sandy (Sherilyn Fenn), a lovely girl who is very attracted to her male persona, and she also struggles with trying to keep this whole experiment a secret from her boyfriend Kevin (Leigh McCloskey). On the same night Terry gets Denise to agree to be her date to the prom, she has a chat with Kevin, and he complains to her that he used to find her hot, but then the Terry that he knew disappeared one day (he had already expressed his disapproval over her shortening her hair and dressing blandly). Terry tells him that she is still the same person before asking him if the only thing he values about her is her looks, and though he replies “no”, it is not very convincing. She tries to cover for her change in appearance by saying that she is under pressure because her article is due Monday, and he basically reveals – much to her displeasure – that he doesn’t take her pursuit of becoming a journalist seriously when he replies that he doesn’t know why she is wasting her time on her article and then refers to her pursuit as a “hobby”.

The next day, just before Terry leaves for the prom, Kevin calls her up asking if she is free tonight, and after she tells him that she isn’t, he declares their relationship over and hangs up on her. However, sometime later, he changes his mind about the breakup and comes over to her house, and after finding out that she isn’t there, he demands for Buddy to tell him where she is. Buddy agrees to show him on the condition that he can come along, sensing that whatever is coming next will be interesting to watch. At the prom, Deborah and Tolan are crowned as the prom king and queen, but Deborah refuses to do the customary dance with Tolan and resumes dancing with Rick. Incensed, Tolan interrupts them and punches Rick, prompting Terry to launch herself at him. Tolan throws Terry into the nearby ocean, and Buddy – having just arrived with Kevin – sees this and jumps Tolan, but he gets thrown in the water as well. Thankfully, Rick gets back to his feet and faces off with Tolan, and he finally puts him in his place by beating him up and chucking him into the food table.

Kevin appears and confronts Terry, voicing his confusion over why she is dressed in a tuxedo, and Terry tells him to go home and that she will call him later tonight. Rick then comes up to them and asks Kevin who he is, and Kevin tells him that he is Terry’s boyfriend. He then tells Terry that he knows she still loves him and wants to work this out, but she replies that she doesn’t love him anymore and has fallen for someone else now. Terry then takes the confused Rick somewhere away from the crowd and confesses that she is really a woman, and when Rick doesn’t believe her, she shows him her breasts as proof. She then attempts to explain her reasons for hiding this from him and tells him that she thinks that he is a terrific guy and he means a lot to her, but he walks away from her, angry over having been deceived like this. As Buddy is leaving the prom with Sandy, since she had become impressed with him lately, Terry goes after Rick and soon kisses him in front of everyone on the dance floor, but Rick derisively informs the surprised crowd about Terry’s true gender before taking off with Deborah. The embarrassed Terry leaves moments later, ignoring Kevin as she goes. When she returns home, she goes to Buddy’s room to ask him why he brought Kevin, and she finds him in bed with Sandy, so she leaves them be. When she starts to type up her story about her experiences as a man, she fights back tears thinking about Rick, and she decides to include how she has fallen for him.

The article is a success; it gets published in the Sun-Tribune and wins her the internship. She also returns to Pearl High, but she isn’t too eager to get back into the dating scene right away, since Rick is still on her mind but he won’t talk to her. One day, when Buddy meets her outside the Sun-Tribune’s headquarters in her car so he can take her home from work, Rick suddenly appears. He tells Terry that he misses her, then asks if she still feels the same way about him as she did in her article, and she replies that she does. They agree to go out dancing on Friday night, and they also decide to go for a drive right then and there. When Terry asks Buddy if he is coming along, a beautiful female motorcyclist suddenly pulls up, and after she and Buddy exchange looks of mutual interest, Buddy departs with her instead.