Anonymous: "If you're still accepting prompts, I've always been curious about the throwaway line regarding Harper and him knowing he'd lost the battle with J and A regarding name choices in the TGO universe. I'd love a vignette where the initial conversation about name choices happens. I'm guessing it's Tenley and Braelyn that he has issues with since Arabella's name is much more classical? Thanks for considering and thanks for all the wonderful writing you've shared."
After warning you that this might take awhile, it's the most formed idea in my head. When I say something needs to feel "Right" for TGO I mean like a few little details need to come together like what game they're playing or who, if anyone is in the room. And then I just have to commit to writing and let the other pieces come together. I don't really think any little details will contradict, but if they do please forgive for now. And don't be afraid to point anything out (kindly, please) TGO logistics are important to me but I'll be honest especially because I'm doing these for 100 days it's impossible to read back.
100 Encore, Day 52: "The Crazy Ones"
"Tell pop pop who are we gonna meet in a few weeks Bellie girl?" Jackson asked his daughter when she crawled on his lap. He was sitting in his grandfather's study in Boston playing checkers, because their chess matches got intense and it wasn't exactly the best game to play while watching a child. Harper would be a lot less angry if Bellie decided to mess up a checkers board than a chess board.
"Sissy Brae Brae," she mumbled into her daddy's neck. Bellie had never exactly been excited during any of April's pregnancies. She was a good sister once they came out of mom's belly, but she'd really rather they not be there in the first place.
"Who?" Harper held a black checker in mid-air, glaring at Jackson across the table.
"That's right, diva, Braelyn's gonna be here. Are you excited?"
"No I not daddy."
"Whoa you are lucky Santa came yesterday Arabella Catherine. That is not a very nice thing for a big sister to say."
"Santa don't care. He not sited too."
"Well I don't blame you, Arabella. I wouldn't be excited for a sister named Braelyn either."
"Grandpa," Jackson snapped, through gritted teeth.
"What? I'm simply telling the truth Jackie. I don't understand how you come up with these names. Any of them really. Or why you insist on naming the child before it's born, either. You don't know if the child will be healthy or…"
"We do know actually. She's healthy. And no matter what she'll have a name. Plus it helps the girls to know they are having a sister and what her name is before they meet her. We've always had bonding issues with this one and you are not helping."
"Would it kill you to name the child something normal, though?"
"Bellie, tell pop pop how mommy and daddy came up with your name." Jackson guided Bellie's hand as she jumped Harper's pieces for him. Sometimes his grandfather's exact comments were best ignored.
The little girl sighed. "Oh mama was jus' stucked in a 'el-bator an' called my daddy fer a 'straction an' they played a game of names and mama sayed what 'bout Arabella an' daddy sayed das pretty and I kick-ted mama 'acause I knowed my name and das it pop pop, OK?"
"OK, but what about your sisters' names, those are the crazy ones."
Bellie stared across the table at her grandfather like he had two heads. "No way! Me an' daddy are crazy ones an' mama an' Tene so sweet ones. Mama jus' pick a name an' daddy say das pretty no big deal pop pop. Don't be mean to my sissy, only me bees mean to her."
"Hey shh relax diva. No you can't be mean to your sister. Are you getting tired, huh?" He brushed her curls out of her eyes and kissed her forehead. "I think it's nite-nite time soon."
Arabella shook her head no into her father's chest, but when she was too tired to talk back bedtime was overdue. Harper jumped Jackson's last piece and began cleaning up the game. In every Avery house, the girls were taught to lose at a young age. If they wanted to win, they were simply expected to do better next time. So Bellie didn't even care that she and her daddy lost.
"Really grandpa, she's not wrong. April picks the name…she just knows nothing biblical and I get to pick the one I like out of two or three. It's not that serious." Jackson yawned and stood up with Arabella in his arms. She was slowly drifting to sleep on his shoulder.
"Clearly it's not serious to you or your wife."
"OK, what's the right answer so I can tuck my kid into bed?"
"Well…I can't believe I'm saying this, but what's wrong with biblical if it sounds respectable? It's not like they're going to go around quoting scripture their whole lives."
"Actually it's fine with me if they want to, what's not fine is using the Bible as inspiration for my child's name. Crazy Harper, I know. But it's a line I drew that my wife understood and it works for us. And that's what matters here. And April has a weird thing about an 'l' sound at the end of the name, whatever." He dismissed the detail. It was important to his wife, it made her happy, made choosing a name a little less overwhelming. "I would give up this fight if I were you, though. Harper isn't exactly a traditional male name anymore, if it ever was."
"Yet sadly for you, it will be included in your son's name, yes? The junior that you will have next."
He was right about the name. When April was pregnant with Arabella they played with the idea of naming her Harper. But then they decided their son would be a junior. The son they always knew they'd have.
But Jackson was fuming, and not about to let Harper feel any satisfaction. "Don't you dare mention a son or another pregnancy to my wife right now. She's happy. We're happy. We're ready for this baby and it upsets her when people bring up the boy thing, so don't. Goodnight Grandpa, see you at breakfast."
With that, Jackson left with a sleeping Bellie to trek to the girls' rooms. He and Catherine had a wing of the house all to themselves until Jackson graduated college, Harper had insisted on it. But now that Jackson only came back out of obligation a couple of times a year, if that, the house was like a maze to him. He'd like a little bit more space in his own home, though it wasn't small by any means. But this place was ridiculous.
He ran into April on the way, carrying a sleeping Tenley. "Hey you…you should not be carrying more than one baby right now…give her to me." She smiled and let Jackson take Tee, but they woke her up in the process.
"Dadda, hi!"
"Shhh….nite-nite princess."
Tenley pointed to her sister in her father's other arm. "Bee nite-nite."
April nodded and led the way to the room. She knew Jackson often got flustered in these halls, despite growing up running through them. "Tenley nite-nite too."
"Goo gir?"
"Yeah, you're a good girl. Visit your dreams now." Jackson borrowed the phase from his wife and kissed his little girl's cheek.
"How was checkers?" April asked, turning on a small light in the nursery so he could put the girls in their beds safely.
"No big deal." Jackson kissed them after April tucked them in and turned out the light, following her to their bedroom. He wasn't going to tell a woman that was eight months pregnant that one of her in-laws was still criticizing her name choices, her daughter wasn't excited for another sister, and neither was Santa. And even he'd blocked out the fourth child comment.
April laughed, crawling into bed. "You sound like Bellie."
He shrugged. "Could be worse, I could sound like Harper."
He rolled his eyes. But April knew better, and was too pregnant to get into a real discussion about Harper. "Well I love you, Jackson Harper Avery, no matter who you sound like sometimes."
"Oh yeah, how much?"
"To the moon." But she whispered it too low for him to hear, and he was already too busy sucking on her neck to be listening carefully. April was very tired and very pregnant. But she had learned long ago that the key to keeping her husband happy in Boston was a lot of kisses in a lot of different places. As long as he remembered which lines not to cross while they were guests in another home, she was happy to keep him happy.