DaytonDailyNews.com

Adrian Jemison wants it to be known that he got his look way before Corbin Bleu became famous among "High School Musical" fans.

He's talking, of course, about The Hair — the cascade of corkscrew curls tumbling over his brow like Niagara stopped mid-Falls.

"I had my hair like this since fourth grade," said Adrian, now an eighth-grader at St. Christopher School in Vandalia. Not that he minds the actor-singer appropriated his look — not one bit. His parents, Laura and David Jemison, noted a surge in their son's popularity. In another puzzling development, his 12-year-old sister, Ashlyn, started hanging out with slightly older girls.

"Everybody wanted to be my best friend, so I would invite them over to my house," Ashlyn recalled. She has learned how to tell the real friends from the fake: "They want to hang out with me, instead of peeking in his door."

Adrian has a history of unconventional hairstyles. When he was in first grade he grabbed his mom's scissors and cut bald spots in his hair. He was mystified by her horrified reaction: "I thought I was doing a good job. I thought it looked quite fine."

It was during one of Ashlyn's select soccer tournaments in Cincinnati that things really got crazy. The family stayed at a hotel hosting a "High School Musical II" party the night it first aired on the Disney Channel. Before entering the lobby Jemison noticed a mob of girls heading for her son. "Run!" she yelled. She sneaked him in through a side door, but the girls scouted him out anyway.

"That was really weird," Adrian said. "Especially in a public place."

It astounds me that anything remotely connected with the word "musical" can incite teen mobs. When I was a kid my passion for Broadway musicals was my deep, shameful secret. I learned that lesson the hard way, in grade school, when our teacher asked us to bring in a favorite record. My peers looked at me like I had shown up in white socks and saddle shoes when I picked "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" from "My Fair Lady." To make matters worse I'd forgotten Rex Harrison shouts a series of "damns" in the tune — so I got in trouble with the nuns, too.

Now teenagers are among a new wave of Broadway fans and kids are lining up to watch the big-screen debut of "High School Musical." Once again, I missed my era.

Adrian, meanwhile, is making the most of his accidental celebrity. He wouldn't mind being a real star — provided he doesn't have to do any singing or dancing. His real passion is soccer, but he hopes to take up acting, too.

"He can act," said his mother, laughing. "Trust me."

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at (937) 225-2209 or

mmccarty@DaytonDailyNews.com.