I have been posting a long fic here, and decided it was worth putting up another for a change of pace. This is one I already have about half of up on another site. A significant influence is a sort-of novel by Timothy Zahn called Distant Friends.
It began three days after Anya Forger's 14th birthday. She knew no better than anyone else what her true birthdate was, but the family always gave a birthday celebration on the anniversary of the day Loid Forger had adopted her from Ostania's most notorious orphanage. They had had a party on the family estate of her best friend, Becky Blackbell, with a modest guest list that included Damian and Demetrius Desmond. Her big gift from Mama and Papa had been a frilly pink dress she was still wearing three days later, while Damian had given her a boxed set of Bondman novels that she was finishing the third volume of in the late afternoon. She was in the living room with Papa, where he often played his tape player, stretched out on the couch. Bond slept on the floor below. Down the hall, Mama was playing with Baby Brother. She slowly became aware of music played by an orchestra, but very different in form from classical music. It was atonal and at times nearly random, like what she had heard from a Techno band that Demetrius had taken her and Becky to see. The more she became aware of it, the more it distracted from her reading. Finally, she said, "Papa, I don't like this music."
There was a pointed silence. She turned her head, to find Papa looking back at her from his desk. "Anya," he said, "I'm not playing anything." He pointed to the player next to his desk. There was no tape wound between the open reels. The lights were dimmed. The needles and gauges were all at 0. He turned and stood up. He crossed the room in a few long strides, then leaned down to look Anya in the eye. "Do you still hear it?" he asked.
"Yes," Anya said. "It's getting quieter, though." The music was already fading. Abruptly, it cut off. She swung upright, allowing Papa to sit down beside her.
"Anya," he said, "has this happened before?"
"Not really," she said.
Papa nodded. "Do you think it's your telepathy?" he asked. She had revealed she was a telepath when he had confessed he was a spy to her and Mama.
"Maybe," she said.
Weeks passed, then months, and then a year. For Anya's Fifteen, Becky rented an amusement park. As they climbed out of the Blackbells' car together, the differences in how they had grown were acutely evident. Becky had filled out into a true Venus, wider at the hips than the chest. Anya looked like a homunculus, perfectly formed and proportionately endowed yet distinctly out of scale. Both drew a reaction from the pair who waited, Damian Desmond and his much older brother Demetrius. Anya let a bashful Damian place a chaste kiss on her extended hand. Becky brazenly threw her arms around Demetrius and kissed him on the lips. "Eww, puke-a-tronic," Anya said. Damian blushed furiously. Becky looked over her shoulder and grinned.
"Hey, I like a mature guy," she said. "Once you know your type, just own it. Say, what would you think of being sisters-in-law?"
"As if!" Anya said. "There's no way I'm marrying a guy I meet before I'm twenty!"
It was a wonderful day. Anya was escorted by both Damian and George Glooman. The latter had grown from a morose first-grader into a thoughtful and courtly scholar with stars to spare. She favored them both in turn, until early evening when they challenged each other to a contest at a fairground shooting gallery. The result was that Gloomy handed Anya a pink penguin as big as the one Papa had won for her long ago, still more than half her petite height. Becky summoned a photographer to take pictures. In the midst of it, Anya tilted her head. "Hey," she said, "do any of you know this song? The tune sounds familiar, but I can't make out the words."
Becky looked at her curiously. "What song, Anya?" she said. She pointed to a loudspeaker. "They're playing music, but it's just the organ." She drew Anya aside, penguin and all.
"I'm sorry," Anya said.
"You told me you can read minds two years ago," Becky said. "I told you, I didn't mind that you waited to tell me. I said, whatever else you do, don't be weird about it. That was weird." She leaned in closer. "Do you still hear it?"
"Yeah, kinda," Anya said. "I finally figured out what it was. I heard it on the radio once. It's called Grow Young', I think. It's fading, now." She hummed the tune absentmindedly.
"Well, if you hear any more, tell me," Becky said. "Now, let's go ride the Big Loop!"
They mustered the whole party for a ride on the park's towering wooden rollercoaster. Anya and Becky rode at the front, with the penguin between them. They whooped and raised their arms at the top of the eponymous loop. Behind them, the Desmonds and Gloomy gave an awkward but sincere cheer. Alas, moments later, the penguin slipped out from under the safety bar.
A park employee brought the penguin to Anya. It was intact, though covered in dirt, grime and leaves and twigs from a bush it had landed in. "We talked to the guy who runs the game," he said. "You can have a new one if you like."
"No, I'm keeping this one," Anya said. "It should clean up as good as new. If it doesn't, it will go even better with the one my Papa won for me!" She squeezed the penguin, then hugged Gloomy.
"You've kept a lot of things people give you, even after they get beat up," Gloomy said as they walked to a more sedate wheel ride. "I think that's cool."
Becky bumped his hip from the right. "So do you think you're old and beat up?" she said. "Is that why you keep him around, Anya?" She circled left and elbowed Anya. "Have you figured out who you go for, Starlight? Maybe you like 'em young, and you just don't know it yet." Anya giggled uncontrollably. "You could turn into a creepy old lady with a cutie pie boy like your crazy Aunt Fiona. Just think, right now, your hubby could be getting tucked into bed by his Mama."
"Stop, I'm gonna pee!" Anya said.
"I know a guy who's into that," Becky said. At that, Anya did run for the restroom, leaving the penguin behind.
As she made her way back to her friends, Anya paused. She looked up at the night sky. She focused her still uncertain powers. She heard a faint song over the blare of the loudspeakers. "Listen," she said out loud. "I can hear your music."
As she intensified her concentration, she heard a voice: "Hello?" She looked left and right to be sure it was not someone speaking to her. "Do you hear me?" The call became plaintive. "Are you like me?" She mustered her full power, straining to send an answer, but it was clear that she had already exhausted her strength. She heard only the final words of an Ostanian lullaby, fading into the night.
Anya wiped a tear from her cheek. Becky was shadow boxing Damian with Mama's moves. She mustered a smile, and hurried to rejoin her friends.