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Lady Hammett
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Re: Kirk Hammett Jr. Series
Although life seemed to go back to the way it was, two things did change. Dad never abused me again - and I never talked back to him again. We had both learned that the way we'd reacted towards one another was wrong. We learned what not to do as a family.
But as Lani pushed her way into Dad's life further and further, the further Dad and I grew apart.
That summer, Stephanie and I spent a lot of time together while my various friends went on vacation. We began to plan a tour for next summer; it only had to be two months, we figured, to have a bit of success. I talked to my agent, Wyatt Fanning, about it, and he agreed. We began making plans.
Wyatt talked to Dad and he was thrilled. But I could tell Lani was becoming priority.
One day, a little bit before school started up again, Stephanie and I were taking a stroll down Market Street. We had been bombing around town all day, smoking cigarettes. We stopped at a deli and I treated us to lunch.
Then my cell phone rang (yes, Dad did get me one for my eighth birthday) and I picked it up.
"Junior, it's Dad. I want you to come home for dinner with Lani and me. We're having a fondue - mostly bread, not too many veggies."
"Um, Dad, I've just grown out of the tuxedo I wore to the school dance," I informed him, "Can we go shopping for a new one?"
Quality time with Dad and a shopping spree did not sound like such a bad idea.
"No, I'm afraid not, there's no time," Dad replied. "Where are you? I'll pick you up."
"I'm on Market Street with Stephanie."
"She can come too if she wants. I'll pick you guys up in about twenty minutes."
I didn't like this at all, but reluctantly agreed and hung up.
I told Steph and she cried, "Damn! I gotta get better clothes than these! I need a dress . . . Heather Henderson lives around the corner, she's about my height - maybe she has one."
"You could always take my money and go to the store-" I began. Dad always told me I should share my wealth and not hoard money, so I had always been giving as a result of that.
"It's okay! Heather'll have one! I'll meet you at your house!"
"Okay," I replied, and waited for Dad.
His Land Cruiser pulled up shortly. "Where's Stephanie?" he called.
"She's borrowing a dress, she'll meet us at the house!" I said as I got in the car. "Dad, what am I gonna wear?"
He hadn't changed yet, so I figured maybe this was a casual fondue?
"I'll conjure something up," he replied.
That sounded funny to me. What on earth could I wear? I knew I had grown out of the tuxedo, but I certainly wasn't tall enough to wear anything of Dad's yet.
When we got home, Dad and I went to my floor. He rummaged in my closet, then went to the guest room closet. He pulled out a box and I raised my eyebrow. What was this?
Oh, no. My worse suspicion was confirmed. He pulled out a pair of brown slacks, courdoroy shirt, and check tie. His mother had sent it to me for Christmas. She did not know me at all, which figured. Ugh! It was so ugly!
When I put them on they barely fit at all.
"Hurry up, we have to get down to dinner," Dad said.
I looked sooooooo stupid. When I got down to the dinnertable, Lani was sitting there and she looked ugly. Her chin was pointier than ever, and she wore pale makeup on her face. She had on a vinyl red crotch-length thing (I guess it was supposed to be a dress). Her beady eyes ran over me, then she broke into a horrible laugh.
I couldn't help it. "What is your problem?" I cried.
"Kirk! Let's use some manners at the dinner table," Dad snapped.
I rolled my eyes, but didn't talk back. I wished I didn't look so stupid!
Lani explained the rule of the fondue: There were bowls of sauces, and we dipped breads into them. If anybody dropped their bread in the sauce, they had to kiss the person to their right.
I immediately sat in the rightmost seat so that Lani was across from me, Dad to her right, and Stephanie across from Dad (which put her at my left). That way nobody would be to my right!
The doorbell rang and Daryl Ackerman, our cleaner, went to answer it. He would be hosting tonight.
Dad sat down next to Lani. He looked cool! He had on plain black pants and shirt, with a gray jacket and black-and-gray striped tie. It wasn't fair! Why did I have to look like a geek?
Then Stephanie entered, and my mouth dropped open. She wore a beautiful velvet dress and black heels which raised her up to about six-foot-one. Her hair was twisted back on her head in single braids. She wore a little bit of makeup, but not too much like Lani. She looked really pretty! It was okay if she dropped her bread in the sauce and had to kiss me, I figured.
"You look awesome," I whispered as she sat down. Before she could utter a thanks, Lani began to ring a small bell. (Note: This is just for Anna!)
"Daryl!" she shouted. "DARYL!"
Daryl came over, looking irritated. (He wasn't dressed cool either - he had on something that looked much like a jester's costume.) "You RANG?" he asked.
"I want the red wine now," Lani announced.
"I'm about to serve the appetizer and wine," Daryl replied.
"But I want the wine first," Lani said.
"A please would be nice," I cut in. Hey, Dad had *****ed about my manners!
Lani immediately changed the subject. "Is this your girlfriend? Tall, isn't she?"
I wanted to say, "At least she isn't a midget like you." Lani was shorter than Dad, who wasn't very tall - 5'7 1/2 to be exact. Instead, I replied, "She's my best friend."
Dad cleared his throat loudly, probably at the crisp tone of my voice.
Daryl served the red wine, then the appetizer. Stephanie and I were given some kind of nonalcoholic sparkling cider.
The bowl had a cheese dip in it, and I wasn't sure what kind of bread it was, but it looked good.
Lani went first. She picked up her fork, speared a piece of bread, and tapped it hard against the sauce bowl until it fell off into the cheese. Then she grabbed Dad's head and began some slurpy kissing right in front of us.
"Hey, she cheated!" I cried.
Daryl laughed. "Indeed so," he said, and Lani shot him a dirty look. She reluctantly went again, and dipped the bread normally this time.
Dad went, then Steph, then me. We went around like this a couple of times. Then I dipped my bread in and gasped when the fork came up bare!
I watched the bread sink into the cheese bowl.
"Now you have to kiss me!" Lani shouted with glee.
"I do not! You're across from me, not to my right!" I exclaimed.
"If there's nobody to your right, it's the person across from you," Dad told me.
"That's not fair! You can't change the rules!" I wailed.
"Junior, I'm afraid that Lani would be considered your rightmost person," Daryl confirmed.
Whose side was he on?
I looked up at Lani. She had the most horrible smile on her face.
Everybody was staring at me, except Steph, who was staring at the floor.
I couldn't take it anymore. "NEVER!" I hollered, and bolted up the stairs to my floor. I cranked the music up loud enough so that nobody could hear me screaming bloody murder.
Suddenly, a pair of lips planted themselves against my cheek. It was Steph.
"I dropped my bread in the cheese," she said softly.
Last edited by Lady Hammett, 11/1/2005, 9:11 am
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10/28/2005, 6:41 am
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Lady Hammett
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Re: Kirk Hammett Jr. Series
I knew that Lani's confrontation was to come, and it did, right after the fondue.
"Here she comes," I hissed to Steph, "Grab a tape recorder, record what she says, and HIDE!"
Steph managed to cram herself into my grandfather clock with the tape recorder and shut the door.
I waited nervously. Lani entered my floor and said, "You owe me a kiss, young man."
I rolled my eyes. I had promised that I wouldn't sass Dad, but that didn't mean Lani. This woman was up to no good and I knew it.
"Are you deaf? I'd rather kiss my Dad's taxidermy!" I exploded.
"Boy, you think you're something special, don't you?" she taunted.
"Excuse me?" I retorted.
"Daddy's boy, child star, little rich kid. Most popular boy in school," she listed. "I've seen you strutting around this neighborhood like you own the place-"
"Wouldn't you like to own it?" I said immediately. "Let me ask you something - your interest in my dad - it wouldn't have anything to do with his money, would it?"
I swear her eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of her head.
"You precocious bastard child," she accused.
I was taken aback. Precocious I had been accused of. After all, I was in the top academic level of my school and could already speak two other languages fluently (Spanish and Filipino). But the fact that it had just been my single, never-married dad and me for years simply was not addressed. It would probably be taboo to do so, considering Dad and I had made plenty of success by ourselves and therefore hadn't needed her around.
We didn't need Lani, either!
I shot straight up and stood face to face with her. She wasn't even a foot taller than me!
"My dad and I's lives are NONE of your business!" I screamed. "We don't need a woman here, now get lost and don't come back!"
Suddenly, she grabbed my collar and thrust me against the wall. Pain exploded in the back of my head. "Listen son. I am going to be with your daddy, whether you like it or not, and there is nothing you can do about it."
"If you don't put me down, I'm going to have a word with my lawyer!" I yelled.
"You and your dad share a lawyer. And I know the sergeant who handles your individual stalking cases from any obsessed fans. Sergeant Dylan Hopkins? Know him already. So don't bother to tell anybody, because nobody is going to believe a stupid little kid. I don't care if your IQ is 170."
"It's 180, actually," I told her quite truthfully. It really was!
I heard Dad calling her from the first floor. I wished he had been up here instead! Was he blind? How on earth could he fall for this woman, this Cruella Deville?
She released me FINALLY, and I ran into my room.
Right then I just didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t possibly go on like this, not with her here. I began to swear and rant in Filipino until Steph burst out of the grandfather clock. Her weight had broken the pendulum, but oh well. Wouldn't cost much to replace it.
Stephanie had taped the conversation – but to our frustration, it was too boggy to understand. At least she’d tried. And besides, Lani had taken over all the authorities already.
As we watched the movie Roadhouse that night – about a rich businessman who runs everything in town, including the cops – I couldn’t help feel the despair that Patrick Swayze’s character did.
Like his character, I decided I wasn’t going to let this tyrant win, either.
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10/28/2005, 6:53 am
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Lady Hammett
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Re: Kirk Hammett Jr. Series
**Okay I am going to start writing again but if I have to leave (which I do soon) this will end rather abruptly . . .**
As mad as I was at Dad for having poor judgement, I continued to admire him and follow his footsteps. I still wanted to be the best guitar player in the world like he was, after all.
The '95-'96 school year began, and I noticed a new kid with the locker next to mine struggling to open it. He had brownish hair, short, and an earring in his left ear.
"Hey - I can help you," I announced. "Stand back." He did, and I rammed my fist into his locker. It popped open.
"These lockers are so old they might as well have been considered artifacts," I told him.
"Wow! Oh man! You're Kirk Hammett Jr.!" he cried.
"Indeed." I extended my hand.
"My name is Ian Fantasy. My dad is in a band called Bad Luck," he declared.
"You're Johnny Fantasy's son? Hey - you skateboard too right? You were in the Nationals last year!" I didn't even realize all this until now.
"Yeah," he said. "We just moved here from Briteman, Oregon."
"Well, welcome to San Francisco. You'll find that we're a little crazier around here."
We laughed. "So, what class do you have first?" I asked him.
He pulled out his schedule and a pair of reading glasses. "Integrated Science, with Mrs. Langston," he read.
"Aw, for real? Ha, she's a real creep. I had her for science last year - and I do this year too. First thing, just like you. Follow me." I led Ian up to Mrs. Langston's room. Like Mr. Chestney, she doesn't like me too much. Once I knew the answer to a question she didn't and she got angry. Sheesh.
When we got to her room, right away, she snapped, "Boys, you're late. Sign the tardy log."
I groaned, but did so. "Are you Ian Fantasy? You're late too," she snapped at him.
"It was my fault, Mrs. Langston," I announced. I didn't want her giving my new friend **** on his first day.
"Kirk, shut up and sit down at the isolation desk," Mrs. Langston snarled.
Man! She had made me sit in isolation all week. I guess I did have a mouth.
I watched Ian sit down between Natally Hill from Sevens and Sabba Habib from Channel 4. They got talking to him, and I was glad, because both Sabba and Natally came over for dinner a lot.
When we got into the lesson about balancing equations, it was so easy that it made me bored. I raised my hand on each question and answered correctly every time.
Other people weren't getting it. It wasn't because the material was hard - it was because Mrs. Langston wasn't the greatest teacher.
When my hand shot up on the hardest equation, and I managed to explain it better than she did, Dayne and Derek commented that they understood it now and thanked me.
"You know what, Kirk, why don't you come up and teach the class?" Mrs. Langston snapped.
"Okay!" I stood up, went over to the board and was handed the marker to write with by an irritated Mrs. Langston.
For good measure, I erased her name written on the upper right-hand corner and wrote "Mr. Hammett" in its place.
Everybody laughed.
. . . I have to go, I will continue this later . . .
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10/28/2005, 8:40 am
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Lady Hammett
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Re: Kirk Hammett Jr. Series
Of course, since I was an actor, I decided I was going to play the part!
I opened up the Teachers' Edition textbook in front of me, looked up at the class, and asked, "Did anybody have any trouble with the homework last night?"
Dave Rodgers from Sevens raised his hand.
"Dave?" I called on him.
"I had a problem with number ten," he replied.
I looked at the textbook, then wrote the problem out on the board.
"Who can begin balancing this equation?" I asked the crowd.
Taylor Shayfer - the girl I had a crush on - shot her hand up in the air. I could feel myself blush. She was even more pretty today, with her dirty blond hair up in a bun and some new clothes that her mother had designed.
"Taylor?" I tried to make my voice perfect, didn't want it to crack.
Taylor successfully walked us through the equation, and I commented, "Excellent job, Miss Shayfer."
"You're a pretty good teacher so far, Mr. Hammett," she responded, and I could feel myself blush again.
I continued on like this, and when people couldn't answer questions, I walked them through it myself.
Mrs. Langston just sat at her desk the whole time. I could tell she was livid. When the bell rang and everybody started filing out, Taylor walked past me and winked at me.
My heart skipped a beat. She was so cute!
"Are you sure you want to follow in your father's footsteps, Kirk? You may as well teach instead!" she shouted. It was worded like a compliment, but by her tone of voice you wouldn't think so!
I just replied, "Yes, I would prefer to follow in my dad's footsteps" - and dashed out of the room.
When I got to my locker, Ian was struggling with his again, so I popped it open the same way I had that morning.
"Dude! You were brilliant!" he exclaimed.
"Mrs. Langston hated it," I told him with a grin.
"She is a jerk," he said about her attitude.
Ian and I ended up having Pre-Algebra next and Spanish II together after that. Then it was time for lunch.
"It is time I introduced you to everybody," I told him, explaining about the groups. I had already introduced him to my boys in the Kontrollers, since they had math with me.
When it came around to lunch, I introduced him to Sevens, Channel 4, Masterpiece, then pointed out our foes in Team Tumble and TRAK.
Now it was time for Leather N' Lace. I started by pointing to the girls at their table.
"Whoa, she's cute," Ian said, and I hoped he wasn't talking about Taylor! But he wasn't. He was talking about Barbie Brown, one of the others. Barbie played drums. The girls in Leather N' Lace all lived in Pacific Heights too.
Ian lived on Nob Hill, which wasn't too far from our neighborhood.
I told Ian about my crush on Taylor Shayfer. Greg had already started going out with Adair. They were a little older than me, so it figured that they were ready.
I had noticed that the groups had changed a little this year. Channel 4 had picked up two boys and a girl. Masterpiece had lost and gained a member. Sevens, Leather N' Lace, and Team Tumble remained the same. Where was Ian going to fit in?
Then I had an idea - why shouldn't he be in the Kontrollers?
Greg, Dayne and Derek talked about it that night on my floor, and we all agreed that Ian had the right background to be in our group.
"But do we really need a third guitar player in our band?" asked Derek.
"Sure," I replied. "Two rhythms and one lead. That's fine."
So we broke the news to Ian the next day and he was thrilled! To our delight he fit in with us well.
But speaking of changes, I got a shock about the new girl in Channel 4. Her name was Kora Newt - could you imagine such a name? - and it turned out she had the hugest crush on me! I learned this from Greg, who had been told by Adair, who had been told from her friend Rachel Rodgers (Dave's sister) in Channel 4.
I nervously looked at Kora Newt. She was skinny, short, and had red hair up in braids. She had a face full of freckles, and a high-pitched voice. Honest to God, this girl looked like Pippi Longstocking. She wasn't pretty like Taylor. Ew!
Well, the worst was bound to happen. She began to follow me around, first just at school, but then it started to happen after hours as well.
Boy were there changes that year. It didn't help that one of them happened to be my class schedule - it turned out that one of the classes I needed to take was Team Sports! Ugh, I hate gym!
We had a new gym teacher, Mr. Love, and would you believe he selected me for football? Ugh! I hated football!
And Kora showed up at every practice, cheering me on. It was so embarrassing!
It didn't help that I sucked and she told everybody that I was the best. That did it. If I had to be the best - which I felt I was at everything else - then I was going to get better!
I asked Dad one day if he could help me practice throwing the ball around. It turned out he wasn't much better than I was, but he wasn't horrible, either. We spent a couple afternoons a week lobbing the ball around in our backyard.
Then would you believe that we had to play against another school to receive an A for the class? Thank GOD this class was only a semester long and ended in December!
So we, the Demsey Dragons, went against the Rockhill Redcoats from the East Bay (a home game for Demsey). I had told Dad about it but sure didn't bank on him showing up. I was used to having to do things without his support.
But to my shock, he did show up! You can't miss Dad. He entered the bleachers about five minutes before the game started!
Of course, with him there, it made me ten times happier and ten times more motivated. I felt energy surge through me, adrenaline pounding through my veins.
Would you believe that we won the game? When it was all over I torpedoed up into the bleachers and threw my arms around Dad. He hoisted me in the air and carried me down the stairs.
"Thanks for helping me, Dad," I told him.
"Sure paid off, didn't it!" he grinned.
I hoped Lani wasn't there. To my relief, she was nowhere in sight.
Dad and I celebrated by eating pizza. Ian, who had also been forced into the football section of team sports, joined us. His dad was there too, and he and my dad talked about their careers in the music industry.
So here I was, basing myself on a false hope that things would be okay again. I still had the will to be like Dad though, no matter how bad things got.
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10/28/2005, 4:17 pm
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Lady Hammett
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Re: Kirk Hammett Jr. Series
Still wanting to be like Dad made me get obsessed with perfecting my solos. One night Dad was playing live with some string quartet. He made up an awesome solo of its own to match with them. Stephanie and I watched him from our VIP chairs, and since the performance was on a local TV channel, it was recording in the VCR at home too.
When I got back I played the video back and back as I sat with the guitar, trying to make my solo sound just like Dad's. I was going to show it off in school tomorrow for sure.
Hours went by as I perfected my work. I didn't even notice, eventually, that it was four in the morning! Steph had gone to bed, and she came out to go to the bathroom at that point.
"Are you still up? What are you, nuts or something?"
"Ssh!" I hissed, not even looking at her. "I nearly have it!"
She just shook her hand, then went to bed.
I must have fallen asleep because I woke up with the guitar (the KH1 for the record) in my lap and the amp humming.
It was seven, time to get ready for school. I groaned, got up, put the guitar away and started preparing for breakfast.
"How could you go to school after getting three hours of sleep?" Steph scolded.
"There's an assembly today, and I'm playing Dad's solo no matter what. I can impress people with bags under my eyes!" I replied.
And that was one of many times, let me tell you. Everything had to sound perfect because Dad sounded perfect.
*********************************************
As stated before, Dad influenced a lot of the trends that I introduced to the school. One of them was piercings. Dad got a labret, and I debated about getting one for myself, which in turn would get the boys to get one, and then the girls in Leather N' Lace, and so on.
One night I was pondering over it, standing on my floor which has a balcony overlooking Dad's first floor, and I noticed a stranger in our house.
I jumped out of my skin. There was a man downstairs with short, curly hair and a cowboy hat on. He wore what looked like a Puerto Rican pimp outfit and black and white shoes. he was about Dad's height and build. I could not see his face.
I needed a weapon, and looked around my kitchen at the various utensils. Finally, I settled on a rolling pin.
I slowly crept down the back stairwell, my heart ready to burst out of my chest. Where on earth was Dad, and how had this guy gotten into our house??
I gently pushed open the door to the downstairs corridor, crept along it, and made my way out into the open area of Dad's first floor that I had seen the guy in.
He took a seat on Dad's couch, making himself at home. Who did he think he was?
I stepped up behind him and raised the pin high.
Suddenly, he got up and whirled around.
A bloodcurdling scream tore from my throat. It was Dad!
He had cut his hair short, applied eyeliner to his eyes, and dressed like a pimp. Had he gone crazy?
"Christ Jesus!" I cried, grabbing my cheeks with the tips of my fingers. "Dad, have you gone crazy? I thought you were a stranger!"
He laughed. "Just a change of heart, son," he told me.
That's when I decided I couldn't be like him as much as I wanted to. No WAY was I going to cut my hair!
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10/28/2005, 4:34 pm
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AwayFromMe
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Re: Kirk Hammett Jr. Series
I'm Vietnamese but I've been here all of my life. I've lived in Washington state all of my life. My parents may be Vietnamese but I'm American. The way I was raised was how a lot of vietnamese kids were raised but I got americanized being here all of my life and all, haha. It doesn't matter if the parent is wrong, you still need to respect them. These people brought you into this world and they raised you. You may be right but that doesn't give you the right to start screaming and throw a hissy fit. I always look at kids who were raised by non-asian parents and I see how much disprespect they have towards adults.
Junior is lucky because worse things have happened to me and some people I've talked to. If he wants respect, maybe he should start thinking about showing respect to others. My mom doesn't have a lot of rules...In the past, when I've gotten into issues with my mom, I have never gotten her to listen by yelling at her. You talked to them like civilized people and get them to listen. I learned that lesson awhile back...that I couldn't throw fits because that just 'causes more tension and crap.
I say Junior is lucky he has such a good relationship with his dad but I'm sorry to say he takes if for granted. My dad lives in Florida, wish I could have a cool dad like that. Wait...I do...my step dad rocks, haha. Awsome stuff, you did a good job though I hope Lani becomes un-evil later  .
Last edited by AwayFromMe, 10/28/2005, 10:23 pm
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10/28/2005, 10:10 pm
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I laughed my ass off as you see when I read it. 
Now I REALLY need that movie! I'm off to the videorent. 
I find it great that Junior stands up to Lani like that. Great. 
