Life Lesson 6 (Uk) Defiance runs in the blood

Before the term road rage became common use, I'm pretty sure that my cousin, who was driving us back to the house, was exhibiting all the classic signs.    
     
Not only was she speeding and diving in and out of traffic in her white Ford Granada car, but she was also letting out some colorful curse words, and I even had to turn my head and stare at her, wondering what was going through her mind.    
     
We managed to return to the house in one piece to be greeted by the rest of the family. You would think that being born and raised in the United States, I would not feel this was home. But it was home, where ever my family was was my home.    
     
Walking inside, I smelled food cooking and cigarette smoke, and I think the scent was gardenias in the air.    
     
We all did the customary hugs and looked us over. The usual,” Oh gawd, she shot up and out. You look just like your mum at your age.”    
     
Every older family member made that repetitive comment when they saw me. When they saw my sister, on the other hand, they saw our father—tall, lanky, and fair-skinned.    
     
We went up to our room to put our suitcases down to be greeted by more cousins. You know the ones, Ang, Pet, and Nat.    
     
Those were the girls. The guys came later that evening, and mind you, if you do not know how island people are. We may call you cousin, but there is no blood relation. Why do I tell you this? I may or may not elaborate on certain situations.    
     
All the cousins fell into the same group as if we had never left. But there was a slight divide in us. My sister and Ang became a clique, and me and Pet became a click. Nat was the youngest of all of us, so she bounced between the two.    
     
We did a quick catch-up and then decided to go to the common, leaving the adults to drink and carry on.    
     
As we were leaving, I noticed that when nobody was looking, Ang had nicked a fag from one of our older cousins, who was already a bit tipsy, and the sun had not gone down yet. We all went down to the common and just decided that we were going to light this fag and share it between the four of us.    
     
At this time, I had never smoked a cigarette in my life, but I knew what Ang was doing, like I said, I had an issue at that time of my life, and you were not going to show me up.    
     
I can't recall what we talked about that much on that day, but I do recall taking my first inhale and trying my best to make it look like I took it down far enough that I did not choke on the smoke.    
Remembering how they blew the smoke through their noses and out their mouths, I kind of worked it out. No one told me that you can get a slight buzz off your first cigarette. Again, I worked it out.    
     
My sister said no, and my cousin's Pet said no., as well. I guess you would consider Ang and I the bad girls smoking. Once we finished the cigarette, we returned to the house to eat and relax and again Ang Nick something else.    
     
We grabbed a glass of warm rum and went upstairs. This time, all of us took a sip and decided that even though it was strong, it was pretty good.    
     
The guy cousins came, and of course, we got all the hugs and how you're doings out of the way. One cousin, who is not a true cousin, hugged me, and it lasted a bit longer than it should.    
Once he left I looked at the others and was like “I don't recall him ever.”    
     
Pet decided to be the spokesperson and said, “he’s not a real cousin? He's more of a mate of one of the guys. But they have gotten so close, and he's been here so often, that we kind of just consider him a cousin.”    
     
Ahh, so that's where I wanted to clarify something because we have a lot of non-family family members.    
     
We all stayed up until 2:00 in the morning, which is usually when the adults really start to get loud or pass out. All the cousins gathered in the attic, which was turned into a bedroom for one of the boy cousins. Before marijuana was legal, we were exposed to it.    
     
Exposed, meaning the room was filled with marijuana smoke, and then we had a contact high. You may be thinking my family has strange ways. But whose family is perfect? His mum yells at him continuously not to smoke the crap in her house.    
     
I guess defiance runs in our blood because nobody did what they were told not to do.