Hey, my name is Lahiwe! I'm a high school student at an arts high school in the U. S. of A. I love writing, but I often find it difficult to follow through with my original stories, so I write fanfiction. I'm a humanitarian at heart, and would like to have some sort of career that benefits people around me. I am also a textile designer and hope to go into business with my parents, who design window coverings and home accessories. My hobbies include reading, writing, calligraphy, ink painting, signing petitions, keeping up with global affairs, contemplating nature, doing research on science and history, interior decorating/fashion design, collecting ethnic textiles, dancing in my room, and smiling :)

Favorite Pairings

Bryce Loski and Juli Baker from Flipped: In my opinion, one of the most well told love stories ever. Two wonderfully flawed characters that don't even end up together by the end of the book, but that you know are made for one another. Bryce is the best. He's just so...awesome! I dunno, maybe I tend to like the less sympathetic characters.

Mal and Dom Cobb from Inception: These two are so intense. One of the few portrayals I've seen on the big screen of a married couple with kids who are deeply and powerfully in love with one another despite the years. In fact, they've spent their entire lives together in dreamland. Literally. My favorite is Mal--she seems so lovely, so loyal to her husband and children, and so trapped within her own subconscious.

Pocahontas and John Smith from Disney's Pocahontas and Terrence Malick's The New World: My favorite couple ever. Well, maybe not really, but I think they are wonderful. I like John and Pocahontas equally, and I think that the two movies together provide a more complete picture of each character than either one on its own. Yes, the romance is somewhat cliche, but the depth of these two characters beyond the typical die-for-your-love Romeo and Juliet type lovers makes me return to them over and over. Pocahontas is also my spirit animal, alter ego, whatever you want to call it. I'm not even kidding.

Newland Archer and Ellen Olenska from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: One of the lesser known classics (although I have no idea why). The trapped, bourgeois dreamer (Newland) and the exotic social outcast (Countess Olenska). The book and the movie provide very different interpretations of Newland, and I like the one in the movie more (he seems to be more in love with her than just the idea of her, which is implied in the book). I wish that this book ended happily, or at least had more scenes. *weeps* And Ellen is such a great character.

Completed Stories

Upside Down and Backwards (Flipped) Bryce has flipped, but Juli has too. Can they get past all the misunderstandings of the past and finally get in sync with each other? Well, first, there'll have to be a few apologies. My first fanfic! Complete.

-Choosing Her Own Path(Pocahontas) A lot of the criticism that the movie Pocahontas receives is that the main character, Pocahontas, isn't very interesting. WELL I DISAGREE. So this is my homage to her. Elements of history, spirituality, Algonquian and Old World culture, and of course, romance combine in this semi-retelling of the movie through Pocahontas's eyes. Complete.

Stories in Progress

-Two Parts, One Whole(Flipped) Juli's dad once said that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Apart, Bryce and Juli struggled to understand life and find their places in it. Together, they can do more than they ever would have imagined. This is a sequel to the book, which I decided to write because Bryce and Juli are almost always rolling around in my head anyway, and because the other sequels in this section don't really talk about the supporting characters, which makes me sad because I really loved them. And because they're just such a darn cute couple that I can't stop writing about them. In Progress.

UPDATES* Chapter Two is finally up! I have a new direction with this story, so the chapters I've already written may have to be dumped, but at least the muse has returned--3/9/13

-The Collected Writings of Captain John Smith (Pocahontas) Companion piece to Choosing her Own Path. This story is basically the movie (infused with elements of The New World) told through the perspective of John Smith, with a framing device of him writing to Thomas many years later (upon his and Pocahontas' reunion) to tell the story of what really happened. Sort of like a private memoir (because the real John Smith did write many public memoirs of his travels). Definitely the longest piece of fiction I've ever written. In Progress.

UPDATES* Chapter Six is up. Four to five chapters left in the story, and I'm in the process of revising and editing Chapter Seven!--12/22/12

-She Was Lovely(Pocahontas)--This one shot is a reminiscence of Thomas' when he learns of Pocahontas' arrival in England to greet the King and Queen. By this time he's returned to England, is comfortably established, and has a wife and two children. But when his wife mentions that he spoke of knowing Pocahontas once, he is thrown into memories of the time he knew her--relatively brief, but precious, for him. His thoughts on getting to know her, growing to love her (no, not in that way), and coming to understand--if not accept--her people's way of life.

UPDATES* Definitely on the back burner for now, but I want this to exist.--12/22/12