Harper & Lee Plus Three

Harper & Lee on MTV

A preemptive thank you for 1,000 reads! An extra special thanks to everyone who is here for the long run! After this chapter, there are 30 more left to go! 

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The next few weeks were a blur. I got set up with my new high-risk pregnancy specialist, who's name was also Doctor Andrews. She was Doctor Alyssa Andrews, the older sister of Doctor Andrea Andrews, who I normally saw. It gave off a lot of Nurse Joy from Pokemon vibes. I wondered if anyone else in their family was a doctor.

At this point in my life, it was almost Valentine's Day. I was twelve weeks pregnant with sextuplets. We already had half our house in boxes, even though we hadn't picked a new place to live yet. But we figured we were moving soon, because we'd be getting a big, new income.

Lee held the door open for me and I walked into the Panera closest to our house. A lady who looked to be in her forties was waiting by the door. She had a nice, warm smile. I hadn't even met her in person yet, but I already felt like I liked her.

"Hi guys, I'm Jamie. Nice to meet you!" she said, shaking both of our hands.

"Thank you so much for coming all this way!" Lee said.

"It's no problem! I'm happy to do it. You guys are free to order anything you'd like while we sit down and chat. It's on me," said Jamie.

"I may get two meals, if that's cool...I'm starving," I said.

"You're eating for seven honey. Go right ahead," she said.

I took up her advice and got myself three paninis, two tomato soups, and a cookie. Lee just stuck to his usual soup and salad. Jamie didn't get anything, but it made sense. I assumed she was just going to do a lot of talking.

We sat down at a nice booth by the window and right across from the fireplace. I put the pillow I brought in behind me. My back was already barely holding up, but I tried to stay positive. I looked like someone who was six months pregnant with one baby. At this far along, I was almost halfway through my pregnancy. Doctor Andrews said my C-section would be sometime between twenty-eight and thirty weeks.

"So when are you due, Harper?" asked Jamie.

"Sometime between May and June. We're just gonna see how long my body can go. The longer, the better," I said, taking a bite of my first sandwich.

"It would be longer if we decided to do selective reduction, but we decided against it," said Lee.

"That's right. I didn't want to play God. I'm not going to terminate one baby just to save the rest if there's a chance that they'll all live. We've got one of the best NICUs in the area. I'm not worried. I'm confident we'll have six healthy babies at the end of this," I said.

"So, other than the whole sextuplet thing, was there any other reason you contacted us to be on the show? Harper was telling me that she thought you'd have a lot of applicants," Lee said.

"We did, but no one has a story quite like yours. A lot of our viewers are interested in multiple kids, but no one has triplets, and no one has sextuplets, that's for sure," said Jamie. "With Chelsea leaving the show, we were looking to get a couple with a similar vibe to replace her. You guys live in a northern, cold area, you have a lot of kids, and you seem to have a healthy relationship, from what I gather."

"Thank you," Lee said, taking my hand. "When things started getting tough, we started seeing our couple's counselor. She'd been a big help."

"There's a lot of stigma around it, but like, people need to realize that couple's counseling isn't just for people in 'bad' relationships. It's for people who have tough things to work through and want to stay together," I said.

"Wow. To be honest, you two are really mature for your age, and you'd be the youngest two on the show," said Jamie.

"We had to grow up hella fast when we had triplets. That's for sure. And I spent a lot of time in foster care, so I kinda had to learn to take care of myself when I was twelve," I said.

"So let me explain to you how filming would work. We'd come in with multiple people, a few cameramen, sound operators, etcetera. I will always be there before, during, and after filming. Whatever you're not comfortable with, just let me know beforehand," said Jamie.

"Lee was concerned about how long you'd be filming," I said.

"Usually during the daytime hours, unless you have an event you're going to earlier in the morning or later at night. If it's a slow time in your life, like not a lot of big things happening, we'd be able to throw something in. We did some trips to Saint Thomas and Hawaii to spice things up in past seasons. We paid for Aubree to see Winter the dolphin in Florida, you know, things like that," said Jamie. "But right now we'd focus on you and the sextuplets. Doctors appointments, gender reveals, and so forth."

"No gender reveal for us, this time," I said.

"Not on air, or..."

"No. Not at all. We're going to be surprised with all six of them. It's just what I want to do," I said.

"Okay. So we'll just leave it as a surprise for viewers. I think they'll like that, but the ratings will tell," said Jamie. "You guys are going house-hunting, correct?"

"Yup. Hoping to use some of the pay from our first season for our down payment. And at five thousand an episode, like it said in the contract, it'll be a big help," said Lee.

"Well it would technically be ten, with the both of you," said Jamie.

I almost spit my soup all over the table.

"Uh...what?" I asked.

"The five-thousand an episode would be for each one of you. Five for you, Harper, and five for Lee," said Jamie.

"I can't believe this is really happening," said Lee.

"So, what do you say? Are you guys ready to sign up and be on the official cast of Teen Mom 2?" asked Jamie.

Lee and I locked eyes. He knew what I was thinking, and I knew what he wanted to do.

"I think we'd like to take some more time to look over the contracts. I just want to make sure we didn't miss anything," said Lee.

"I agree," I said.

"Alrighty. No problem. You have everything that I emailed you," said Jamie.

"Once we look them over again, we'll be ready to go," said Lee.

"Yay! I'm so excited for you two!" said Jamie.

She gave us a hug and we left. Lee helped me down the stairs and into the car. At this rate, I was going to need a wheelchair soon. We drove away in his truck, and he held my hand while I rubbed my baby bump.

"Wow. We're really gonna be on TV!" he said.

"I know! I'm nervous but, like...the money is literally gonna take care of everything," I said. "I guess we can start looking for those big houses that I wanted!"

"Hey, don't get too carried away. Nothing over six bedrooms," he said, chucking.

"We really can't even look at the nine-bedroom mansion I saw on Zillow?"

"The one that's three million dollars? Yeah right."

We both had a good laugh as we drove through the snow. I never imagined that this would be my life, but I was taking everything in and enjoying it as much as I could...while I could still walk.