Tarpon Springs High seniors Michal Leszczynski and Priscilla Adams have been dating for six months. Adams will head to Yale University in the fall, while Leszczynski plans to attend the University of Florida.

That's because Leszczynski himself is no slouch in academics. He and Adams were named co-valedictorians at Tarpon Springs High School with mid-year grade point averages of about 4.3.

Leszczynski and Adams, boyfriend and girlfriend, will graduate Thursday at the top of their class. Today is the last day of school for Pinellas County's 112,000 public school students.

The co-valedictorians have dated since October 2001 after becoming friends in AP history and English classes. The relationship has lasted longer than many high school pairings, and the two are something of a power couple on campus.

Earlier this year, when they competed together on the academic team, a teacher had to remind them not to hold hands.

"Stop the interlocking digits," she told them.

But she probably didn't have to worry. With Leszczynski and Adams, the school work always comes first. Their parents don't mind if they study together, Adams said, because they know they will actually study.

"They're very focused," said Ronni Garber, their AP literature teacher.

People at the school expect big things from this couple.

"My prediction is that Priscilla may be the first female president," Tarpon Springs High School principal John Nicely said. "And Mike is a special young man. A partnership made in heaven."

One recent morning, with the school year winding down, Leszczynski and Adams strolled into literature class and turned in research papers about poets. Adams had written a report about Dylan Thomas that was several pages longer than the teacher required, and Leszczynski wrote about Wislawa Szymborska, a poet from his native Poland.

The couple sat at neighboring desks, something the teacher hadn't allowed the rest of the year.

They traded barbs, with Adams gently bragging that she was doing better in a notorious economics class than her boyfriend had done. Leszczynski joked about teaching Adams a few words of Polish.

"He had taught me the phrase "I love you' at the same time as "shut up,' " she said.

During a phone conversation, she got the two phrases confused and accidentally disrupted a sweet moment.

"Maybe you weren't paying attention" to the lesson, Leszczynski said playfully.

"Oh, please," Adams said.

Both have won numerous awards for their achievements. Adams won a Florida First Lady's Arts Recognition scholarship, a Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital scholarship and a school award for writing. Leszczynski won a Helen Ellis scholarship, the Rotary scholarship and the school's math award.

When they aren't joking with each other, they say, they admire each other.

"Where should I start?" Leszczynski said when asked what he respected most about his girlfriend. "Intelligence, of course, and her good looks. Her determination to do things. She wakes up at 5 a.m. to do calculus or practice."

And one more thing: "her ability to find some time for me," he said.

Adams, in turn, thinks "it's remarkable that English is his second language, and he's been able to come over here and get a four on AP tests. And he's just been a really good friend."

Even before she heads to Yale and he goes to the University of Florida in the fall, the couple will spend some time apart. Leszczynski will return to Poland for more than a month this summer, and Adams isn't sure if she will visit him.

"Maybe it's time to buy a Webcam," she said.

Leszczynski's summer trip is a "test, a dry run," Adams said.

As for next year, they don't know what will happen. They know that New Haven, Conn., where Yale is located, is a long way from Gainesville, but they aren't ready to face the reality of being apart.

"We haven't really talked about it yet," Adams said. "We're putting it off as long as we can."

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