A new kind of family
On a warm Florida Friday, boys in high-tops and loose jeans hanging from their thighs greet one another with a nod and then a slap on the hand. They tease relentlessly. Others pay little attention, listening to music blasting through their earbuds or texting so quickly that their thumbs appear a blur on pink, sparkly phones. 
Nearly 30 young adults and teenagers who were born with HIV/AIDS meet every week at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida.
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"The teens are teenagers," said Ana Garcia, an adjunct assistant professor in pediatric infectious disease and immunology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine who helped form the group. "They just happen to have HIV. It's about fitting in, being normal, and having goals and living long enough to meet them."
The group of HIV-positive teens, which calls itself the Kool Kids, formed in 1995. The youth who grew up with HIV/AIDS describe the usual complications of adolescence -- dating, high school drama and rumors. But they also experienced broken families, medical complications and fights for acceptance. As their parents and family members died, the peer group here became a new family, Garcia said.
Over an hour of joking, merciless teasing and eating Chinese food, the teens scarcely mention HIV/AIDS. It's a fellowship that silently understands one another's struggles.
"We don't want to talk about HIV every day," said Eric Koumbou, 19. "If you talk about HIV and you don't have it and I do, sometimes it makes me angry or makes me sad."
Even if they don't talk about it, it helps a young person with HIV who may think, "This is the end of my life. I don't know what to do," said Lane, who joined when she was 11. The older teens support the younger ones and show that HIV/AIDS doesn't consume one's life.
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