Puddle Jumping by 107yearoldvirgin

Official Description:

To know the ending, you must start at the beginning. I’m Isabella Marie Swan. Eighteen years old. Senior. Short in stature. Skinny fat. Brown hair and eyes. And this is my story. It’s not your run of the mill fairy tale. ExB – AH – M

Word Count: 59,997

When 107yearoldvirgin tells us in the summary that Puddle Jumping is not your run of the mill fairy tale, she is not lying. What she doesn’t tell us, is that it’s better than a fairy tale, because it’s such a breath of fresh air in a sea of fairy tales. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a fairy tale as much as the next girl. Bella being swept off her feet by her glorious perfect prince is fun to read. Puddle Jumping teaches us that sometimes your prince isn’t perfect, but he’s still your prince. Sometimes, you may not be a princess, but when you step into the kingdom of your flawed prince, it opens up a whole new world for you, a world meant for you too. And sometimes, your journey to love isn’t always you floating on a cloud, but more like you jumping through a lot of puddles, but in the end possibly incredibly worth it.

The story is told from Bella’s perspective as if she is talking to the reader. Bella is eighteen and upset because it seems that her story is not the hollywood fairy tale that we see in movies. She is going to share her story of how she is:

…not the kind of person to fall in love.

And neither is the guy I’m head over heels for.

So, she goes back to the beginning, when she first meets Edward. She is 10 and he is 9, and she is asked to babysit him. She agrees to babysit even though it seems weird to babysit someone just a year younger. But, in true canon Bella form. she gets in all kinds of precarious dangerous predicaments, in which Edward has to basically save her life more than once. Much to Esme’s chagrin, she stops allowing Bella to babysit for fear that she might end up actually dead.

Bella does not see Edward again until she is a junior in High School. She shares about her life during those seven years. She’s a typical teenage girl. This Bella is no holds barred with expressing how she feels to the reader.

You know that old saying, ‘Everything happens for a reason and there’s a reason for everything’? Well, sometimes I think that’s a total crock of shit. Bad stuff happens to people all the time. People that don’t deserve it. And sometimes, great things happen to awful people. Like, famous people who take life for granted and whatnot.

Sorry. Rant over.

I love this Bella and it’s perfect that she is talking to the reader. It made me feel like I was her friend, to whom she’s explaining what’s been going on in her life.. She tells it like it is, even when it’s hard. When Edward comes back into her life in her junior year, she learns that he has asperger’s. She doesn’t know what that is, but it is fairly obvious that there is something different about him, socially. She learns as much as she can from the internet, but in spite of the unknown, she is completely drawn to him.. While the story isn’t a lesson in asperger’s, it definitely gives you real insight into the struggles of someone living with asperger’s, as well as the beauty of someone who can see past the asperger’s and into the heart of soul of a man who wants desperately to be normal. Bella and Edward become best friends. Bella learns that Edward never forgot her from when they were kids, and it was the main reason he wanted to go to her high school.

As the story progresses, Edward struggles to assimilate socially, and Bella struggles with her growing feelings for Edward, knowing that he will never be able to express himself like a normal boyfriend. People with asperger’s usually excel in one area and are often highly intelligent, Edward thrives in the artistic field. His paintings are beautiful, and he introduces Bella to that world. While there may be some who don’t understand their relationship, we all know there are bullies in everyone’s world, Bella and Edward actually have a lot of support. Alice, Jasper, Rose, and Emmett play roles, and Lauren is Bella’s best friend and is one of the best Lauren’s I’ve ever read. If you are one of the people who hated Renesmee in ”Breaking Dawn”, you will love how 107yroldvirgin uses her in this story.

We are reading 107yroldvirgin, so there will be citrusy goodness. It’s very fun, because they both have the normal teenage hormones, but they have to explore how to make it work with some of Edward’s touching issues. Here is one of my favorite parts:

I just sort of stepped forward and blinked up at him … and asked him to kiss me.

That little half smile of his pulled up one side of his face and he met me halfway, dipping his face to mine to plant a kiss on my lips. Once. Twice. And the third time, I pulled in the back of his neck and opened my mouth to … ya know…slip him the tongue.

Oh my god. This is really embarrassing that I’m telling you this, but I’ve been upfront with you so far and it would be useless to stop now, so if you’re uncomfy with me talking about this kind of shit, I’ll warn you now to turn off your computer and go watch some Teen Mom or something…

Anyway, I got brave and slipped him the tongue. I was in the moment and wasn’t thinking clearly, so it hadn’t occurred to me that he might think it was gross or whatnot, but he’d pulled back a little and frowned, making me feel weird and self-conscious.

“I’m sorry. Was that gross?” I asked, wanting to melt into the floor and just die.

He’d shook his head slowly and then looked at me for a second. “Perhaps we could try this after you’ve brushed your teeth.”

Yeah. He said it.

Now if he were any other guy, I would have probably punched him. Somewhere. Face. Arm. Nuts. But he was Edward and he was brutally honest about everything and he had no filter to stop it, so my only reaction was to laugh and step back, assuring him that I would brush my teeth next time.

No worries, they figure it all out and Bella ends up sneaking into Edward’s window many nights to fool around. If you don’t know much about asperger’s, much of their social issues is that they don’t have a filter, they say exactly what they are thinking, and in this instance I almost lost it, not to mention that it’s at the end of a chapter….thank goodness she posted the next chapter that evening.

We were on our way to school, passing by one of the few side roads we’d claimed as our own when our need to be with one another was way too much to ignore, and Edward’s hand was squeezing mine a little tighter than normal before I felt him shift in his seat and he spoke loudly into the quiet car interior.

“Bella, would you enjoy it if I used my tongue on you?”

Yes, I know. Be glad when you read it, you won’t have to wait for this:

The car fishtailed from my foot hitting the brake so hard and unexpectedly. I slammed into the steering wheel, hitting the shit out of my sore boobs and stared at him like Bambi watching his Mom getting killed.

“What?” I’m pretty sure that was my eloquent response….

I’ll let you read the rest for yourself.

The first chapter makes it clear that at some point their journey hits a pretty big puddle. Things get pretty dirty (angsty). But, the chapters are short and the angst doesn’t last long. I won’t tell you what causes the big shift, what makes Bella question whether she really can be with Edward, who will never be able to return her love the way she gives it, and how Edward fights his disorder to prove her wrong. You will have to read it for yourself. I beg you to read this story, 107yroldvirgin writes this tale with pure beauty of the soul, the spunky spirit of a teenage girl, and the window to a simple love with a complicated path.

There is a part in the end that had me crying like a baby….tears of joy. When you get there tweet me at twisherry and I would love to talk with you about it. I could kiss 107yroldvirgin for giving us this story….give yourself a gift today and go read Puddle Jumping.

I’m not sure I can completely express how much this story affected me, much less write a review that would do it justice. But let me say that this is the kind of story that reminds me why I fell in love with fanfic to begin with.

The story is told from Bella’s point of view, and her voice is one of the most interesting and endearing aspects of this fic. Not only does it truly feel as if we are reading the words of a teenager with her honest and sometimes painful admissions, but this Bella also acknowledges that we are reading her story. Any pre-conceived notions of how the characters are expected to interact are thrown out the window in the first chapter.

It starts with me and my fashion-forward best friend…Lauren.

What? Did you think I was going to say ‘Alice’? There you go, making snap judgments and jumping to conclusions.

See what I mean? The chapters are short, the pace quick, and I was awed by the author’s ability to create a beautiful plot and such well-developed characters in so few words. Her gorgeous use of prose is another one of the story’s strong points as well.

My story is about the journey I took with Edward for over a year after he came blowing into my life like an unexpected summer rainstorm, making everything take on a different hue and coloring my world in hazy greens and yellows.

When Bella and Edward meet, they are both only children. However, the story quickly moves on to show their magnetic connection. Edward seems aloof, disconnected, and when Bella finds out the reason for his behavior, she is already in too deep.

First, Edward was a sixteen-year-old boy, who was a high functioning Aspie, that just wanted to be seen as normal.

Second, there was a part of him that trusted me enough to be his closest friend.

And third, I was falling for him, and falling for him hard.

Just a few chapters in, I was so invested that I couldn’t stop reading; don’t think I’ve been this worried about a story being a HEA or not since the first time I read New Moon. It’s a roller coaster of emotions that made me laugh, cry and warmed my heart more times than I can count in the twenty-four hours it took for me to devour all the chapters. It reminds us that true love knows no boundaries, no prejudice, and is a true tale of hope overcoming all odds.

I won’t take up much time with the flaily gushing I was doing on Twitter today about this story. Let’s just say that I spent the day reading it from beginning to end, and I loved it. 107yearoldvirgin did a great job of portraying a story about a difficult situation in a respectful and creative way. The story is told entirely in Bella’s POV, like she’s writing to you – the reader. It’s refreshing and sweet to see our two favorite characters as they fall in love and experience not only the trials and tribulations of any high-school relationship, but also those added by Edward’s condition. By the end, my heart was clenchy, my eyes were wet and I was smiling hugely. If you want a quick, sweet and wonderful story to fill an afternoon or an evening, I highly recommend checking this one out.

I tried to write a review for this story a million times, but I don’t know what to say. I don’t have any words besides motherfucking wow. All of you know that I love everything 107yearoldvirgin writes. She’s amazing. This story is no different. The characters are amazing. The storyline is different from what you expect. And the format–Bella talking to us–is refreshing.

Just read it. It’s a must-read.

[dcs_p][/dcs_p]