The fuss started March 13 at the airport, as the family prepared to board a flight from Pittsburgh to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Aren't you the kids we saw on the "Today" show?

It would continue during the brothers' weeklong spring break from Avonworth Middle School aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean.

Hey, didn't we read about you in People magazine?

Look, it's the celebrities -- maybe we should get your autograph!

But Max and Will Graf handled it well, considering they're just 12 years old and a couple of sixth-graders. The heady brush with national celebrity, that is.

Born with a form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia, the boys -- who stand just 43 inches tall -- are long accustomed to people staring and pointing. But people asking for autographs or to pose with them for pictures?

Their story has drawn attention from national media since the Post-Gazette began chronicling their experiences at middle school last fall. In 1998, John and Suzanne Graf of Ben Avon adopted Max from Korea, who was about the same age and had the same condition as their son, Will, and the duo has been well known in the community since then.

But the national celebrity is something new. On their recent cruise, both boys handled the limelight in different ways.

"Will would just kind of keep his head on his shoulder and smile," recalled their grandmother Mary Ann Graf, who also was on the cruise. Max, on the other hand, was a bit more comfortable with the attention.

"He'd put his hand on his hips and say, 'Thank you very much!' " she said.

Fifteen minutes of fame doesn't always translate into maturity. But for Max and Will it has, especially at their school, where they're just regular kids. One indication of how they've blossomed over the past year is their leadership roles. Last week, both were chosen by counselor Aaron Pellicano to be on the orientation panel for students entering middle school in the fall. Will also was elected as student council vice president on Friday.

"They do everything. Nothing holds them back," said social studies teacher Diane Neuhaus. "It's so cool."

The questions from middle school newbies at Max's session on Friday flew as rapidly as the fifth-graders' pulses: Will I be able to keep up with the coursework? How can I get between classes in three minutes? What do you mean we don't get recess?

Max and his fellow panelists, though, handled the queries with confidence and humor. (If you want to avoid a violation, one suggested, don't talk back to the teacher!) They even dished about their own biggest worries from a year ago, when they, too, were facing this nerve-wracking transition.

"My biggest fear was getting hit with a lot of homework," Max confessed. "But really," he continued with a grin, "we don't have that much."

The school year, which comes to an end Friday, wasn't without more personal challenges; one of Max's biggest issues when school started was something his average-sized classmates couldn't even contemplate: Would he get trampled on in the halls?

"But nothing ever happened," he acknowledged last week.

Even when his right foot, which drags slightly when he walks, got tangled up with his left and he fell, Max added, "three other kids would be there to help me up."

His mother, Suzanne, meanwhile, fretted over the boys' backpacks, which this year were filled with even more books.

"I can't believe how heavy they are," she said.

Luckily, Max, whom the Grafs adopted at age 2, kept a second set at home.

Something of a procrastinator in elementary school, Max had no problem taking on the added responsibilities expected of middle schoolers: no more fooling around in the halls on the way to class or waiting until the last possible second to stop by his locker; no more showing up for class without a pencil or a notebook. He even did his homework. (Well, most of the time, anyway.) So all in all, "It was the best year I ever had. I'm gonna miss it."

The same could be said for his brother, Will, who is two months older. He not only met the academic challenges of middle school head-on, but also excelled; having so much more freedom was, in fact, the "funnest" part of sixth grade, even if it meant more was expected of him.

"You get to go everywhere by yourself," Will said.

Despite their small stature and somewhat limited physical abilities, both attended dances, field trips and sporting events like any other kid. At the middle school "Olympics" May 23, for instance, both participated in the shot put competition even though their disproportionately short arms put them at a distinct disadvantage: Will's longest throw was 16 feet while Max could only manage 13 feet. (Classmate Chris Dick won the contest with a throw of 49 feet.) But no matter. It was fun.

"I didn't even know what it was," Max said of the event, laughing. "I thought it was like, putting." As in a golf ball.

Same goes for Will's time in the 100-meter dash: a pokey 26.5 seconds.

"Dead last," he quipped, brushing his long blond hair off his shoulders.

He has better luck playing Little League baseball, where according to his father, John, he gets a bat on the ball almost every game, and on the Neville Devils indoor flag football team at the Island Sports Center on Neville Island. He's equally accomplished on the guitar. At yesterday's talent show, his fingers flew across the frets of his electric guitar in the opening riff from AC-DC's "Thunderstruck."

"It would be so easy to coddle them or be overprotective," said their maternal grandmother, Judy Kardell of Ben Avon. "But John and Suzanne let them do whatever they think they can do."

Lately, that means telling their story to a national audience in an effort to raise awareness about dwarfism.

This spring, People magazine came calling; a five-page spread, with images by famed photographer Eugene Richards, appeared in the March 17 issue. That was quickly followed by an appearance on NBC's "Today" and a story in the British magazine Woman.

That led to calls from producers for "The Tyra Banks Show," E's "Chelsea Lately," "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," and "The Oprah Winfrey Show." (That's right, Oprah.) But only ABC's "20/20" won their approval. The episode, which filmed for three days in early May, will air sometime this summer.

"We felt they would reach the most people that would want to learn about dwarfism and the Little People of America organization," explained Mrs. Graf. "Because this is not just about us. It's also about adoption and LPA."

Max, who's starting to think he might like being a teacher, was only too happy to do his part in letting people know that dwarfs, despite their small size and slightly larger heads, are not "freak shows."

"We've got the same size heart and same size brain as everybody else," he said. "We're no different. We're just smaller. That's it."

For now both brothers are content to take it easy. Much of their summer will be spent at their grandparent's condo in Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio, where they'll contemplate what seventh grade might bring.

"I heard from some people that it's rough times in sixth grade," said Max, "but it was no problem. So I think it'll be a good run in seventh grade, too."