Free Poppy Shakespeare by Clare Allan

know how to read them. So as
     soon as I heard the flops dying down, I had a look up at the clock with no hands, seen it was only a half-hour till dinner,
     and didn't need to look no further. But Middle-Class Michael, he weren't going to give in easy. And it was like he could feel
     them wandering off and he just got more worked up so's to try and keep them, and he kept on adding in these bits he hadn't
     done last time round, like stuff about medication and that and MAD money forms, being the two things what gets dribblers going.
     And the poor fucking flops, it was like they was ripping in two. And instead of the cheering all you could hear was cries
     like being tortured and the clapping sounded like bones being pulled apart, 'cause half of them needed to get in the queue
     what was already gone out the doors and the other half needed to hear the end of the speech so as not to miss it. And half
     of each flop I mean, not half of them total.
    So in the end, it was really weird. Nobody said nothing, nobody looked, there weren't no signal, like firing a gun or blowing
     a whistle or nothing, but they all got up exactly together and all of them, they rushed at Middle-Class Michael. And all you seen was this huge crowd of flops, like surging
     forwards any way they could. And it was like they was ants or something; every crack, the tiniest gap between two chairs,
     the space behind the dead plant, they found it. And as soon as one gone through the others followed, like streams and streams
     of them pouring in, round the ends and between the chairs, in and out and around the tables, not even thinking, do you know
     what I'm saying, like ants just streaming forward. And Fat Cath said it was Jacko the Penguin and Jacko the Penguin said it
     was Curry Bob, but somebody upset the empty 'P' chair, and it lain on its back with its legs sticking forwards and after that they poured in even faster.
     And when they got to Middle-Class Michael, still stood on the table, still shouting, still stood on the table, they picked him up, I mean not with their hands but just with the force of them moving, and they
     carried him off, still punching the air and shouting Veronica Salmon, and they moved off, all the mass of them, back across
     the common room and out through the double swing-doors and the last thing I seen was this fist waving high above their heads
     and the last thing I heard was 'Minister for Mad . . .' as they gone round the corner and into the corridor.

17. How everyone turned to Poppy and what Poppy said
    Well once the flops had took Michael out and gone off to join the dinner queue, they left a bit of an empty space behind them.
     And the day dribblers sat there twiddling their thumbs and wondering what to do next. Candid put her headphones on and turned
     the volume up so loud you could see her head vibrating in time to the beat.
    'I was enjoying that,' said Astrid. 'What they have to carry him out for?'
    'Turn it down, Candid,' said Sue the Sticks, but Candid didn't hear her. Up the other end of the row, Wesley drummed on the
     arm of his chair.
    'He weren't even talking to them,' said Astrid.
    'Do you think it's true about privatisation?' said Verna. Sue the Sticks shrugged.
    'Yeah man,' said White Wesley, though it weren't too clear if he was answering Verna or not.
    'He weren't even talking to them,' said Astrid.
    Tina nodded and gone a bit pink. 'He was welcoming Poppy,' she said, so quiet she hardly said it at all. But just the name,
     do you know what I'm saying, it was like someone pressing a switch. Every one of them - 'cept for Rosetta, who was still on
     a bit of a downer - every one of them lit up like that, and turned their heads to where we was standing, me and Poppy, next
     to the mountain of fag butts. 'Speech!' they shouted. 'Speech! Speech! Speech!'
    We'd been stood there ever since Michael gone out. I knew how we should of been chatting and stuff but I couldn't think how
     to get started. And it didn't help