DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH (A Young Guns Fanfic)

Meet Levicy

My name is Levicy McCormick and everything I'm about to tell you is the whole truth & nothing but the truth. People look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them that I once knew Billy the kid, that's the thing, to y'all he was Billy the kid but to me he was just Billy. He was a great man with a mind of stone, the spirit of a child and the heart of gold. Like a diamond in the rough. You couldn't ask for a better pal. First, I'd like to tell you a little bit about me. I was born in Wilkes County, Georgia to my father who was a teacher and had an affair with my Mexican mother leaving me to be considered a bastard by everyone. My father packed up everything and left with his wife to god knows where. To be honest, I don't even remember what he looked like. My mother ended up marrying a man who always drank and gambled and beat my mother. One night, when I was 10, my whole life changed in just minutes. I was awoken by a loud banging coming from outside my bedroom, it was freezing that night so I didn't really want to get out of bed but I was curious of what that noise was. I slowly got out of bed, my bare feet touched the icy floors and that's when I heard my mother's screams and pleads. I rushed out and what I saw would haunt me the rest of my life. My stepfather was holding my mother by her hair and whipping her with his belt and slamming her head into the floor until her face was a bloody mess. I screamed and that's when they saw me, "Run, Honey run!" My mother screamed but I was frozen. It wasn't until I felt the brutal slap to my face from the belt that I went to run but i didn't make it far before I felt more whips to the back and I couldn't move at all. Not long after, my mother got up and hit him with an iron pan which made him turn his attention to her, "Run! Run and don't look back!" She screamed, I didn't want to leave but I did what I was told, I raced out the door and made it a few feet before I heard it... POW! My blood ran ice cold and the hair on my arms rose, I tasted salty tears flowing onto my lips and I stopped only for a minute before I heard more gunshots and ran even faster. "You hear that you little whore! If I ever see you around here again, I'll shoot you like a dog!" I heard him scream. So I never did go back, I ran through woods and towns in nothing but a nightgown, my feet were hurting and cold, I was exhausted and weak and i just wished it was all a dream, bit unfortunately it wasn't. I spent a year as a tenderfoot, I stole food and clothes and I either slept on the streets or had to beg saloon and whore house owners if I could have a room just for the night. When I was 11, I surprisingly made it to Lincoln County, New Mexico. Thats where I met John Tunstall. I was caught by a shopkeeper while trying to steal bread, he chased me onto the street and threatened to give me a lashing but thats when John came along, "Excuse me, sir what seems to be the problem?" He asked politely, I took note that he had an English accent. "This girl was trying to steal from mr Murphy's store, when he gets his hands on her she's gonna wish she never stepped foot into New Mexico." He said with a painful grip on my arm, "The poor thing is just hungry, she doesn't look like she's been well cared for," John said looking down at me with pity "how much is the bread?" He asked and just like that I got a meal and I was saved. John asled if I'd like to to live on his ranch and since I had nowhere to go I thought "why not?". Long story short, Mr. Tunstall raised me like I was his own as well as the boys that I grew to love as much as I did john, Richard "Dick" Brewer, Josiah "Doc" Scurlock, Dirty Steve Stephens, Jose Chavez Y Chavez but we just call him Chavez, and Charley Bowdre. I loved all those boys with all my heart, they were truly my family and they all played special and important roles in my life, Dick and Doc were like my older brothers, mr Tunstall was the father i never had, Chavez was older than me but it sometimes felt like I was his older sister, as for Charley and Steve, they just liked to flirt with me a lot but you'll see that later. Now that you know a little about me I guess this is where the story begins...