#, Johnson, Megan
September 3, 2008
8A
Autobiography
My Cousins
I can remember my childhood only a bit, but I can remember the fun times I had very well. Most of the time that I did have fun was with my older sister and cousins. They would always come over our house and watch us although they were only in middle school. My sister and I were still in elementary, but back then it didn’t really matter, I was the youngest and it was just us set of cousins sticking together. We had plenty of other cousins, but we were considered the coolest. Well not really me, but my three older cousins were. My first cousin is Courtney and everybody liked him (he was the oldest out of the three). My second cousin was Brittney and she is really funny (she is the second oldest out of the three). My third cousin was Brian and he was kind of shy (he was the youngest out of the three). When we were all young, they use to play games with us. Courtney would come over most often and then Brian. I can remember this one time when Courtney and Brian were over our house and we would feed them pickles. I can also remember when Courtney came over our house and we were jumping on the couches acting like he was a shark and the couches were the boats. Another time was when we use to put towels on our heads and act like it was our hair and we would act like we were models. Then pretend that we were late for a fashion show so we would have to hurry and get on the airplane before it left which would be the beds. My sister and I would be the models and my cousin Courtney would always be the fashion photographer. We would play all sorts of games and that’s probably why I liked him the best. He would always think of something to do and one time, he had made up a tent by our sheets between the beds. That time was a big surprise to me because he hadn’t mentioned camping, or tents, or anything. We use to get the video camera and tape us saying funny things and sometimes he would interview us. When we were with Courtney or any of our three cousins, we were doing something. We did have our bad times, well they weren’t bad, but we weren’t supposed to do it. One time we had just gotten our hair done and it was raining really hard, but we didn’t care, so we ran all around the street with nothing over our heads. Our parents didn’t know because they weren’t at the house with my sister, me, and Courtney. Another time was when we spent most of the day prank phone calling people with my cousin’s new phone (that was funny). A really bad situation sparked out of that for me. It was a few days later and I was very bored because my sister was doing homework and I didn’t have anything to do. So I remembered that time when we were prank phone calling and it was fun so I decided to do that. My middle name is Elizabeth so I started looking for people with the name Elizabeth. So once I decided who I was going to call, I told my sister and she just shook her head like I was stupid. After a few rings, the lady picked up and said hello. I didn’t answer for a long time then said hello back. She asked who was calling and I still didn’t answer because I was trying to think of something crazy to say. She asked was my mother home and I said no, then she asked was my dad home and I answered yes. She asked can she speak to him and I said hold on. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I wasn’t thinking straight, I thought she had something important to say. I know she told him something important, it was important enough for me to get a wiping. Next thing I knew, I was laying across my dad’s knees getting a beating, yeah it was important alright! I also remember this time when my sister and I were grounded and we weren’t supposed to watch TV, but with our bad butts, we were going to try to watch TV. So after about one hour of television, my cousin looks over at us and says,” Your dad’s home,” very casually. I didn’t really think about it back then, maybe because I didn’t have any time to think, but my cousin Courtney wasn’t any help. We rushed to put out the trash that gave a hint that we were in the living room with Courtney watching TV. We jumped into the bed and tried to close our eyes but it was of no help because our chests were beating like a hummingbird on a tree. Our daddy felt our hearts and knew exactly what we had been doing. There was this other time when we had waited up really late because we wanted some ice cream. It was one of the nights when our parents were sleep, then we woke up the next morning all hyped up, they asked what happened to the ice cream and we said we didn’t know. There were also other times when I got hurt dealing with my crazy cousins. When we were very little, my cousins, Courtney and Brittney, got into a fight with two plastic chairs. My sister and I were sitting on the nearby couch watching (two dummies). I ended up getting cut on my eye by the chair leg and it was bleeding a lot and fast. My sister got scared and called my dad. When he rushed over to the house, he fixed me up and asked who did it. No one answered so he asked Miranda (my sister the gullible one) and she didn’t answer either. So after getting slapped twice, she finally confessed and said that my cousins were fighting with chairs (second time’s the charm). Another time I got hurt was when it was pitch black in the house because we all wanted to play a fun game. My cousin Brian was over that time along with Courtney. My dad had a whole bunch of pennies, I don’t know where they came from, but he just had them. We were playing a game where we had to throw pennies at one another. It was kind of like a war game. Brian and I were on the same team and Courtney and my sister were on a team. Well while we were throwing pennies everywhere, we heard a sound, it was a loud thump and I got hit right in the chest below my neck. I can’t really remember anything else, maybe because I blacked out, who knows? I can also remember when it was pitch black outside and we were playing hide-and-go-seek. Knowing me, I fell trying to get to base and got out of the game, but it was fun while it lasted. Brittney was with us that time. There was this one time when Courtney and Miranda was trying to teach me how to skate with my Barbie adjustable skates on and we were going down a hill. They held my arms and we all went down, that was fun! Then there were time when I thought I was going to die. Courtney, Miranda, and I were joy riding and having the time of our live, well not really. We were in the car and Courtney was speeding (it was so fun, but Miranda wanted him to stop). We went on this hump and it could have been an earthquake and we wouldn’t have known because we were in the air flying (so to speak). Another time was when we went to Visionland (now called Alabama Adventure). I saw this boy on the ride where it went up and down that was my age. We were in the line to that ride and I was scared but when I saw him, I thought it was going to be just fine. Once we got on the ride and went up, I couldn’t even scream, there was a hush everywhere beside me when I saw the whole park around me. We were so far up that I could have been an astronaut and didn’t even know it. I felt as it I was going to fall because the belt wasn’t tightened enough, I guess it was made that way to really give you the impact of the ride. I was impacted alright! Well after the ride, I wouldn’t get off because I was too shocked so Courtney picked me and my shoes up off the ground (we had to take our shoes off to ride). When he had carried me a little ways from the ride, I said can we go again really excitedly and he dropped me, that was harsh, but I guess that was Courtney. Then there was a time when nothing else really seemed to matter. I can remember it as if it was yesterday; we were all laying on the car rooftop looking up. It was pitch black with nothing insight except the glowing dirt drops in the sky. The stars were as bright as ever and we could see them clearly. Looking up at those stars made me forget all the bad things in the world and just think how beautiful the sky was. As my cousins grew older, they wouldn’t come over really, except Courtney, but he lived across from us. He moved out of my grandmother’s house and into his own apartment and we do not see him anymore. Brian had stopped coming over when he got to the 9th grade. Brittney never really came over, but she is the closest cousin we have right now. I guess everything has to change, especially the good things. The last time I saw Brian alive was when he came and picked me up from elementary school in my fifth grade year. Everybody else had forgotten about me so he came, I really didn’t recognize him, but there he was. Brittney came and got me in her car after I had walked half the way with him. That was in 2005 though and it has been 3 years since then. He had been shot by my friend’s grandmother’s foster son because he was jealous of Brian. Of course Brian got a girl pregnant before he died and she had a son. He was trying to turn his life around before he died; I guess having a baby was why. Brian having a baby was kind of a good thing so we will remember him more clearly. I can still remember the good times my cousins and I shared, but the bad times are what really shapes our lives……………… each and every one of us.