Seventeen only comes once in a lifetime/ Don't it just fly by wild and free..." Tim McGraw's voice rings out from a boom box perched on an aluminum grandstand, behind a well-worn softball diamond. Beth Perez, 17, is playing catch and humming along, until she sees the yellow sign hanging from the chain-link backstop: WE LOVE YOU MR. AVERBUCH!
Her expression changes, and she wings the ball straight into the fencing. "I'm tired of crying," she mutters. "I'm sick of going to funerals. I'm sick of having to cope with everything and see my friends in pain." Her Webster Groves Stateswomen...
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