And Sydney, an 11-year-old from Chapel Hill, doesn't intend to let a little inconvenience like a family road trip keep her from finding out tonight.

She'll be watching in a Virginia hotel room as Disney debuts the much-hyped sequel "High School Musical 2" at 8 p.m. Her 14-year-old sister, Alex -- who thinks star Zac Efron (Troy) is "so hot" -- will be glued to the tube, too.

Had their mother booked a hotel without The Disney Channel, Sydney says, "Oh, my gosh, I would have been so mad. I'd be like, 'Mom, can I stay home?' "

Other local fans also have planned a weekend of viewing parties, including a free outdoor screening at 8:45 p.m. Saturday at the Cary YMCA -- part of a hypefest that Disney has arranged with Ys across the nation.

People at the Cary screenings will get free temporary tattoos, Polaroids of themselves beside life-sized banners of their favorite characters, cardboard frames for the Polaroids and souvenir cups, according to Dawn White, youth director at the Y.

She anticipates a big crowd. Kids in her programs always request "High School Musical" when rain forces them indoors, she says. And the hundreds of promotional postcards Disney provided disappeared in a flash.

When the Cary Y screened the original last summer, young people sang and danced along in the courtyard, White says. That's not typical behavior, she says, particularly when it comes to the tween demographic.

But there's something about "High School Musical." In addition to the two TV movies, there are a live theater tour (coming to Raleigh in January), a concert tour featuring some of the stars, hundreds of amateur productions, a feature film planned for theaters next year and an ice show.

When Broadway Series South and N.C. Theatre co-produced an amateur production in April at Raleigh's 2,277-seat Memorial Auditorium, all 11 shows sold out.

"Disney definitely tapped into something that has grabbed the youth," White says. "I don't know how they did it, but they hit it right on."

Scott Nicholson knows how they did it: by celebrating happiness and teamwork while other filmmakers revel in depressing gore. " 'High School Musical' makes high school seem very upbeat, fun, with everyone together," says the Efland 17-year-old, who will be a senior in the N.C. School of the Arts' high school program this year.

Sure, it's unrealistic, he says. But it's nice to dream.

"High school is a hard time for kids," he says. "You're trying to get things ready for college. New things are happening to your body. Everything's different. But 'High School Musical' really picks out the fun parts."

And it makes a great after-school tonic, he says. "It helps you get to the next day."

Hype and heartthrobs

For Sydney and Alex, the movie's appeal can be summed up in one word: Zac. The actor is now playing a similar high school romantic lead on the big screen in "Hairspray."

Alex says she has never seen a student that cute at Cary Academy. "I wish," she moans. "I mean, then I'd actually be really excited about school."

Alex and Sydney love all the hype. They have the DVD, the soundtrack, the video game, the board game, the posters. They even have "HSM" jewelry.

Sydney says she will watch the original film until she's "a million years old." Alex says she'll make her kids watch it.

"My mom even knows the dances," Alex says. "She's like, 'I can do the whole dance right now.' And she does. It's kind of scary."

Nicholson usually hates sequels, but he's excited about this one. He downloaded a song from the new soundtrack well before the CD was released to stores Tuesday, and he says it sounds great.

He plans to see the premiere at an "HSM2" party tonight hosted by a middle-school friend next door. The host planned a pre-party gathering Thursday, so newbies could bone up on Gabriella and Troy's travails.

Emma Rich intends to watch the sequel this weekend, too, though she'll be at home in Raleigh with her family. Emma says she has watched the DVD roughly 40 times. But not everyone's sold on it, she notes.

"A lot of my friends think it's way overdone," says the 14-year-old Raleigh Charter High School freshman. "I think the fact that so many people like it makes a lot of people not like it. It's pretty backward, but that seems to happen a lot."

As for what will become of Troy and Gabriella, 23-year-old Theara Sanders anticipates good things. The characters will be on school vacation, notes the Cary fan, so they won't have teachers stressing them out.

Alex predicts romance.

"I definitely think Zac Efron and Gabriella are gonna kiss in this movie," she says. "And I'm extremely jealous."