Employee of the Month

[PartyOfOne]

My father likes this show a lot, and I got him the first season DVD for his birthday back in January. I started watching the show again at my parents’ fathers house afterwards. I was born in 1982, and probably remember the show a little bit from first run, but I’m sure much more from reruns a few years after it went off the air. I had not seen it in quite awhile.
I think overall, it’s extremely good. The acting and writing are very good. The show is often funny. The situations are usually relatively believable.
I think “Employee of the Month” stands out as a clear exception however. Somehow Mike gets a job at The House of Burgers. Although he had bad grades before taking the job, suddenly they have improved. Indeed within about 2 months he is promoted to “Employee of the Month.”
On the same day that he begins work, another teenager (a girl named Terri) is also hired. She happens to be terrible. Soon after winning employee of the month, Terri begs Mike to cover for her, because “one more slip up and she will be fired.” For some reason Mike does this. I do not understand why. Is he romantically attracted to Terri? It does not appear that he is. Are they very good friends? Clearly they are not, if you believe a later scene. Does anybody have any ideas?
The way Mike is fired is not believable. $37 isn’t a lot of money (even in circa 1986) and if he had just been employee of the month his manager would be more accepting I am sure. Why does Terri not confess when Mike is fired?
Later Terri comes to Mike’s house. How did she know where he lived? Clearly she isn’t very friendly with Mike because neither Jason nor Maggie recognizes her at all. She says “she feels really bad” about Mike getting fired and her acting almost seems sincere, which I don’t understand. We are told she is getting promoted to assistant manager and needs Mike’s uniform. We are also told Mike was only fired a week ago. How did Terri get so much better at her job in less than a week that she is getting promoted?
It seems to me that in line with the rest of the series that I can remember, Terri would have confessed and Mike would have been rehired, rather than getting lectured from his father for doing something bad when he really didn’t. What are your thoughts?