The Florist of Fennario

Every morning in Port Arthur, Texas, a teenage girl walked into high school knowing what was waiting for her. They called her pig and freak. Boys threw pennies at her in the hallway and laughed when she bent down to pick them up. In college a fraternity voted her Ugliest Man on Campus. Seven years later that voice was the biggest sound in rock music. Her name was Janis Joplin. In the summer of 1970 she sat down with Dick Cavett on national television with feathers in her hair and a drink in her hand, laughing louder than anyone in the studio. In the video below, she tells him where she's going next. Home, to her ten year high school reunion. The audience laughs because they think she's joking. She means it. She says they laughed her out of class, out of town and out of the state, and now she's going back. Watch her face when she says it. For a second the laugh slips. She went. She walked into her old school in feather boas and pink sunglasses, with reporters following her down the halls. One of them asked if she went to prom. She smiled and said no. She didn't think anybody wanted to take her. Seven weeks later she was found dead, alone in a Los Angeles hotel room. She was 27. A few months after that, Me and Bobby McGee went to number one. It was the only number one hit of her life, and she never heard it on the radio. In her will she left $2,500 for her friends to throw a party in her honor. Did she go back to prove she'd won, or was she still the girl in that hallway, hoping someone would finally ask her to dance?