The Monsters of Blessing Street (Halloween Special 2023)

Chapter 4: Home Alone

George's Pov.

We heard "Gunter glieben glauchen globen" as soon as Franklin turned on the radio as he was driving us all home. "Is that Def Leppard?!" Tony asks in a loud voice, and it is obvious that he knows that it is Def Leppard; how else could he have known? Who among us enjoys listening to Def Leppard the most? Of course, Tony. I can still remember visiting his house once and noticing how his room was covered in Def Leppard posters and LPs.

"How could you possibly not recognize Def Leppard? Don't you listen to them most of the time?" Franklin asks while grinning smugly at Tony. 'That's exactly what I said!' I mentally yelled as I continued to look away, observing the houses that passed by as we drove down the road.

Tony decided to sing along with Joe Elliott, the main singer of Def Leppard, instead of responding to Franklin. "Rise up, gather round! Rock this place to the ground! Burn it up, let's go for broke! Watch the night go up in smoke! Rock on! Rock on! Drive me crazier, no serenade! No fire brigade, just pyromania!" As the trip continued, Franklin simply grinned and shook his head in dismissal before turning his attention back to the front of the road.

Although I didn't particularly like Def Leppard—I thought they were a fairly cool band—I did enjoy one of their songs, and that song was "Rock of Ages." I didn't exactly have a strong opinion about the band as a whole.

I didn't sing along with the lyrics. I decided to leave that to Tony. Instead, I nodded my head, blocked out his terrible singing, and concentrated on the voice of Joe Elliott as he sang the song's lyrics live on the radio. I stopped though, when I realized how silent Milo was on the other side. Similar to how I was doing it, he was just idly gazing off at the homes as the car sped along the road, but he appeared to be agitated about something.

My investigation led me to believe that it was connected to what went down at school today. I assume that it was because the fight, in which he hardly did anything, was wearing on him.

"Milo, what's up with you?" I call out to him. After a long period of silence, he eventually turned to face me and whispered. "I just wanted to thank you, guys, for what you did back there, I know this doesn't mean much because you guys got into a fight just for my sake, and I know it doesn't make sense to say this now, but you guys didn't have to do that just for me." He appeared to be feeling guilty because we took the majority of the beating while he just received a kick to the stomach. I can see this from the expression on his face. "Oh Milo, get with it." Tony stated, "We were all able to make it out with just ISS."

"Yeah, Milo, you hear what Tony said? Sure, we got our asses kicked, but we made it out okay, and yeah, the school will probably call our parents, but all we can do is hope not and hope that they forget about it, although I'm sure they will since they don't care about us, they just want us out of the school as quick as possible. Besides, our parents will be more understanding of our actions once they see that we only did it to protect you." Franklin said as he observed Milo in the rearview mirror. Tony chuckled while turning his head away and concealing his mouth.

"Oh, what's so funny now?" Franklin asks while glaring at Tony and using an irritated tone of voice. "I'm sorry, it's just so funny to hear you talk about this kind of shit when you're the one who advocated peace." In between chuckles, Tony said. Franklin was not in the least bit amused.

"Oh, hardy har har." In a very irritated tone, Franklin said. "Come on, Franklin, you have to at least admit that. The one person who has ever pushed for harmony between George and Dylan is now telling us that fighting is acceptable." Tony continued to chuckle at Franklin's recent statement that it was acceptable for us to engage in a physical confrontation with Dylan and his pals simply because it was our senior year in high school.