Stephanie’s classmate Jamie, who plays guitar with some friends in a band called Human Pudding, asks Steph to go on a date with him to The Smash Club, and Stephanie excitedly agrees. Stephanie’s rival, Gia Mahan, is not exactly as excited about it as Stephanie is. It turns out that Gia likes Jamie too, and she is not about to let Stephanie have him that easily.
Gia comes over to the house and warns Stephanie to break the date, or she will make her life miserable. However, Steph stands her ground and refuses to break the date. Little does Stephanie know how dirty Gia is willing to play to get him.
On the next day, in order to make Jamie cancel his date with Stephanie, Gia spreads a false rumor at school that Stephanie wouldn’t get any dates unless she paid guys to date her, and even put a sign with the words “Date Stephanie, earn big bucks” on Stephanie’s locker.
Jamie, who has been getting ragged on because of the rumor, asks Stephanie who started it, and she says, “Gia. She said if we didn’t call off our date, she’d make my life miserable.” Jamie thinks that maybe it is a good idea to break the date, because he does not want to get ragged on anymore. Stephanie is hurt by that.
The next day, with the help of her friend Mickey, Stephanie gets even with Gia by hanging up a blow-up of Gia’s failing report card in the hallway. Jamie apologizes to Stephanie for the events of the previous day, and tells her that he is not about to let Gia run his life. Jamie says that if it is okay with Stephanie, the date can be back on, and she likes that. Stephanie shows him what she did to Gia, and Jamie says that she had it coming. Gia comes in and sees what happened, and, after angrily yanking the blow-up off the wall, goes straight to her locker. Stephanie walks up to Gia, who has her face buried in her locker, and says, “So, Gia, I guess we’re even.” Gia turns around, and Stephanie sees the tears on her face.
Stephanie then feels guilty. At The Smash Club that night, after a talk with Jesse about the situation, Stephanie sees Gia. Stephanie and Gia talk, and they finally become friends (while also learning that seeking revenge isn’t exactly sweet at all). Gia then tells Stephanie that she can have Jamie, as Gia now has eyes for the drummer of Human Pudding.
Meanwhile, Danny is having problems adjusting to life without Vicky, and it is pretty much affecting the whole household.
Most fathers cringe when their daughters start dating, but Danny is especially shocked by D.J.’s new love interest Pete — a grungy guitar player who is known for getting his way with the ladies. On the night of their first date, Danny, Joey, and Jesse are all dressed up to attend a special awards ceremony, but plans are changed when the guys learn of D.J.’s frightening whereabouts. Meanwhile, Kimmy is hired by Jesse and Becky to babysit the twins, but she’s not the one doing the majority of the work.
Jesse’s recording studio is used by “The Funky Tongues”, the hottest band in D.J.’s school. Jesse, Rebecca, Danny and Joey then start preparing to go to a local awards ceremony where “Wake Up, San Francisco” and “Ranger Joe” have been nominated. Danny is bothered by the fact that “Wake Up, San Francisco” gets beat almost every year by “Up and at ‘em, Oakland”.
“I don’t know what people see in that show,” he says to Becky.
“Cheerleaders wrestling in a syrup pit?” Becky replies.
D.J. has a date, so Stephanie and Kimmy will baby-sit Michelle and the twins. D.J.’s date shows up, and it’s Pete, the lead singer of “The Funky Tongues”. Pete takes D.J. to a drive-in movie theater. Danny is surprised when Jesse tells him that Pete is exactly like Jesse was at Pete’s age — girl crazy. Danny is even more surprised when Kimmy tells him that Pete has never heard the word “no”. Danny, Jesse, and Joey send Becky to the awards ceremony with Joey’s puppet, Mr. Woodchuck. Then they go to the drive-in and intrude on D.J.’s date, absolutely humiliating D.J., who is furious.
The guys take D.J. home, where D.J. blasts the guys by accusing them of overreacting and not trusting her judgement. The guys apologize for overreacting, and D.J. apologizes for neglecting to tell them she was going to a drive-in movie theater instead of a regular indoor movie theater. D.J. neglected to tell them because she knew that they would overreact and humiliate her, and that was the last thing she wanted to happen. The guys don’t want to stop D.J. from dating, so they promise that they will never again act like a bunch of commandos whenever D.J. goes out on a date. At the awards ceremony, Joey and the “Ranger Joe” show won an award for best children’s programming. However, “Wake Up, San Francisco” still lost, but hopefully not to “Up and at ‘em, Oakland”.
