She fooled you.

Without the hair goop and the fake-gold hoops, Mimi Davila is no chonga.

She's a scholar. A humanitarian. A Silver Knight.

Davila, half of the Aventura duo that skyrocketed to YouTube fame with their Chongalicious video last year, on Tuesday night won the prestigious award reserved for South Florida's most accomplished and charitable high school seniors.

''I'm happy because it shows I have more than one side to me,'' Davila, 18, said Wednesday after classes ended at Dr. Michael Krop Senior High. ``It's not just the chonga that you see. There is actually depth and substance.''

Davila and best friend Laura Di Lorenzo made ''Chongalicious'' a household word -- with its own Wikipedia entry -- after uploading a four-minute Internet video in March 2007 of them spoofing girls who wear their lipstick dark, their hair gelled and their clothes tight.

Within weeks of the clip hitting YouTube, it had racked up more than 2 million views, and its high school starlets had performed live versions in front of television crews, radio deejays and flea market crowds.

What may have seemed goofy to others was an artistic expression for Davila and Di Lorenzo, who were both juniors in the drama magnet program at school. After a while, the fame faded, and the girls focused on their schoolwork.

''It kind of simmered out,'' Davila said. ``I was focusing on getting into college, applying, auditioning, getting to Kinko's before the deadlines.''

Davila also put hours and hours into a community-service project that was required to graduate and also became a major component of her Silver Knight application. She started a drama program for kids at the Miami Rescue Mission in Overtown. None of them had ever acted, and Davila taught them how to perform for an audience.

''I felt like a proud parent before I had even been a mother,'' she said.

The Chongalicious Girls reunited in December to lead the King Mango Strut parade. They were the first Grand Marshals in the parody parade's 26-year history that made two loops around the route because of such overwhelming crowd demand.

Life got back to normal again after that, until Davila's Silver Knight award this week.

Classmates stopped her in the halls on Wednesday to congratulate her and offer high fives.

In her chonga role Davila wears a one-piece zip-up monstrosity and big hoop earrings, but the regular Davila is more like the pink-and-white striped tank top and jean shorts she wore to school Wednesday. The only jewelry she sported was the Silver Knight medallion hanging around her neck.

Antoinette Baldwin, the King Mango Strut organizer who wrote Davila a glowing Silver Knight nomination, said Davila is ''a lot nerdier than she comes across.'' She said it with love -- and Davila agrees.

''I love going to school, and I love acting, and I love theater history -- all those things people think are boring,'' Davila said. ``I am a nerd. It's important to be a nerd. We need more nerds.''

That nerd may have fooled millions when she dressed up and played chonga, but not her teachers and others who know her well.

''She is beautiful and smart and gracious,'' said Krop administrator Jean Rosenfield. ``She is the kind of daughter everyone wants.''

The Silver Knight distinction did not cause any tension in Chongaland.

''I'm super proud of her,'' Di Lorenzo said of her best friend. ``She deserves it so much. I mean, there were times we couldn't hang out because she was over at the rescue mission.''

The girls are going their separate ways in the fall -- Davila's off to study acting at Southern Methodist University, and Di Lorenzo will go for her acting degree at Miami's New World School of the Arts -- but they want their friendship to stay tight.

Davila has her sights set on a film career in Los Angeles or a gig on Broadway. It may sound ambitious, but it's not unattainable for this teen. She started high school with a list of things she wanted to accomplish, and she has already managed to cross off most of them. Winning an Academy Award remains near the top.

''I really believe that if you have a dream -- I know I say some cheesy stuff, but I really do mean it -- if you have a dream and you work hard at it, you can achieve it,'' she said.

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