Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your reviews! I love them and keep them coming!
I wrote this chapter pretty fast, I'm not 100% thrilled with it but I wanted to get it out here for you guys!
As always, I don't own anyone who has appeared on glee. I only own Melody, Caleb and Riley. Ryan Murphy owns the rest.

Chapter 10: Our Star

She'd been practicing for weeks. She'd thrown herself into her drills and routines, perfecting them only a child with Berry blood would. Melody Hudson was ready.

Or at least she thought she was ready.

As she dropped to the mat in exhaustion, her head hitting the blue material with a sigh, she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. She sat up only when she heard someone padding over to her, sighing when she saw it was her coach coming towards her. The older woman extended her hand to her and helped her up. She looked at her coach, a weary look on her face.
"Go home Hudson. No more practicing, that routine was flawless. I don't want you injuring yourself before the big competition on Saturday."
"Yes Coach" She nodded.
"Good effort Melody. I mean it" The older woman smiled. Melody just nodded, taking the praise. She collected her water bottle from the side of the mat and took three big gulps from the bottle before heading for the change room. She quickly changed out of her practice clothes, slipping on yoga pants and a light hoodie before heading out to the parking lot to her Mom's car. She threw her bag on the passenger seat before starting the car. Blowing out a breath, she turned up the music and headed for home.

It was Thursday night, Thursday night was family dinner night. Meaning she was going to have to put up with her entire family, after a grueling day at school and particularly hard practice session at the gymnastics gym. It wasn't that she didn't love her family, she did, she loved them to bits. But at the moment she just wanted to crawl under her covers and go to bed. Her muscles screamed, and she was physically exhausted. Not to mention she still had an assignment for her history class to finish. She could only hope tonight's dinner wouldn't be one of the longer ones. She prayed it wouldn't be.
Half of her family was already there when she pulled into the driveway. She counted three cars, her Nana and Poppy's, her grandfathers and her Uncle Blaine's Range Rover. Looks like she was last. That suited her just fine, though she secretly had been hoping for a shower before being thrown to the pack.
Again, she loved her family. She really did. They were just a little intense at times and that was putting it mildly. But she loved them.
What she didn't expect when she walked in the door was to find her boyfriend sitting in the living room, building a Lego contraption on the coffee table with her 10 year old brother.
"There she is!" She heard just as she was about to make a break for the stairs unnoticed. She turned around to see her Grandpa standing in front of her, a glass of wine already in his hand. "There's our star!" She cringed at the nickname that had been passed down to her by her grandparents. "Come give m a hug!"
"Grandpa..."She groaned, eyeing the stairs and then looking back at her grandpa. "I really need a shower..." Leroy seemed to ignore her words and enveloped his granddaughter in a hug. She relented and pulled away quickly.
"I'll be right back..." She looked at him, eyed the group in the living room and walked towards the stairs. At the moment her mother poked her head out of the kitchen.
"Don't take too long Melody, dinner's almost ready."
She inwardly groaned. So much a nice, long, hot shower. She loved her family, she did.

She returned downstairs after her shower, changing into a pair of leggings and an oversized sweater, her wet hair pulled up into a bun on the top of her hair. She'd hastily threw on some foundation and mascara along with some lip gloss. She found her family still in the living room and plopped down beside Riley. She put her head on his shoulder.
"What are you doing here?"She asked softly, placing her hand on his knee. He looked down at her. "Not that I mind, I just...wasn't expecting you to come to family dinner tonight..." She sighed. He leaned over and kissed her head before handing the piece of Lego he had in his hand to Caleb.
"My class tomorrow was cancelled, and since I was coming home already tomorrow night to come to your competition, I thought I would come home early. I ran into your Mom at the grocery store and she invited me." She smiled. "That okay?"
"Of course it's okay." She sighed again and leaned more into him.

Rachel called them all to dinner a few minutes later and they all took their places at the table. The table was a mess of various conversations, but Melody couldn't bring herself to enter any of them. She heard her Nana and Poppy talking about the garage and how well it was doing, her granddad and grandpa were teasing Caleb about the results of his math tests. She met her Dad's eyes from across the table and gave him a small smile. She kept her right hand on Riley's thigh as the various dishes were past around the table.
"How was practice Mel?" Rachel asked from her position at the end of the table, to the left of Melody. She passed her the salad she was holding.
"It was good. Long and hard but good. Coach Miller said my routine was flawless. She told me not to practice anymore so I don't hurt myself."
"And I bet your not going to listen to her." Uncle Blaine laughed from across the table. She just shrugged.
"She is her mother's daughter." Her granddad smiled from his seat. Melody blushed and looked down at her plate, pushing the mashed potatoes around. She felt Riley squeeze her hand. He knew she hated it when her family talked about her like she wasn't there.
"What time is the competition Saturday?" Her Nana asked, as she cut up her piece of chicken. "I know it's in Akron but..."
"Mine starts at 10." She answered softly. "But the entire thing starts at 9, so I have to be there by 8." Her family nodded.
"Riley, are you coming?" Uncle Kurt asked from across the table. "We can pick you up since we're on your side of town..." Riley nodded.
"Yeah, I was planning on coming." He smiled. "And I appreciate the offer, but I was hoping to drive with Melody..."
Kurt nodded from across the table, "Well the offer is still there if you need it."
"Thank you Sir."

She turned in early after dinner was over, choosing to head up to her bedroom to relax and finish up her homework after seeing Riley out. Her Nana and Poppy were still here helping her parents tidy up but everyone else had left. A knock on her door signalled that someone was outside.
"Come in."
The door opened to reveal her father, a chocolate chip cookie as big as the palm of his hand in his grasp. He held it out to her.
"Your mom just finished making these. Thought you'd want one before they were still hot." She smiled at the thoughtful gesture. She held out her hand, signalling for him to come into the room and give her the cookie.
"You okay princess?" She felt him sit down on the side of her bed, causing the books she had pulled out to slide a bit. He caught her textbook before it hit the ground. "You didn't say a whole lot at dinner tonight."
"Yeah. Just tired. I have a ton of homework to do." She blew out a breath. "Just mentally going over my routine..."
Finn smiled at her. "You're going to do fine. If Coach Miller is saying it's flawless and telling you NOT to practice, you're golden."
"I know. I still worry." Finn smiled at his daughter and patted her knee.
"You'll do fine. You always do great. This competition is no different." He looked at his daughter, sensing a little something else.
"It's also a little sad. This might be one of my last competitions. I mean, I start applying to colleges soon and..."
"Don't let that stop you. Just go out, do your best and enjoy it. Who knows, maybe you'll be able to do gymnastics still where ever you end up going to school...I know the University of Lima has a club. Riley told me." Finn smirked. Melody hit his arm gently. She hadn't even applied yet, she would start doing that in the spring and Finn was already trying to sway her one way or another. He'd been doing it since she started her senior year in September.
He kissed her head. "Either way, whatever happens Saturday and whatever college you choose you kow your mom and I will still be and always be proud of you."
"Thanks Dad." She finished her cookie and smiled at her father, genuinely. He always knew how to make her feel better.

This was it. Her floor routine was next. She bit her lip as she watched the judges talk about the routine before hers before they announced her scores. The girl in front of her had been great, but she'd noticed from her position a few misplaced steps and wobbles. That only made her own anxiety rise. When the girl received her scores, which were lower than Melody would have given her, her anxiety started to rise even higher. These judges were going to be hard to impress.
"Next in our 18-20 group, Melody Hudson. Floor routine to Some Nights by Fun." The MC announced. She took a deep breath and blew it out, before walking out to the mat. She looked into the stands briefly and caught the eye of her entire family. If she wasn't nervous before, she was now.
She shook her wrists as she caught Riley's eye. He winked and blew her a kiss.
The music started and she threw herself into her routine, trying her best to ignore the fact that her entire family was watching. She tried to just focus on doing what she enjoyed the best.

Before she even realized it, the routine was over, she'd landed her last flip with grace and elegance, and bowed as the music faded out. She could hear her entire family whistling and clapping, her Poppy the loudest of them all. She smiled at them all before running off the mat to stand beside Coach Miller as the judges debated her performance.

She cracked her knuckles with worry and chewed on her lip. In what seemed like a flash, the MC's voice came over the speaker to announce that the scores were ready. She bit her lip and tried not to blink as they went down the line. All four judges had awarded her with a variation of 9's, the highest being a 9.8. And being that her routine was last, quick calculations in her head told her that she was in first just as the same result was announced. She shrieked, throwing her arms around her coach before jumping up and down, in a very Rachel like way. She had done it.

The medal presentation came next, as her age level was done for the day. She grinned like a fool when the first place medal was placed around her neck. She stood at the top and couldn't help the grin that emerged on her face. She could hear the woops and catcalls from her family as she clutched the flowers she was given in her hands. After a few minutes, she shook hands with her opponents and wished them well before stepping down from the podium, her grin firmly in place.

After announcing there was to be a brief intermission before the next category began, Melody escaped to the change room to throw her warm up clothes over her outfit before going to find her family. When she left the room, she didn't need to look far as she felt Riley wrap her up in his arms quickly, spinning her around before passing her to her parents who enveloped her in hugs.
"There's our star!" Her grandpa exclaimed, flowers in his hands. He thrust them at her, adding to the pile she was holding her hands that Riley had managed to somehow not squish in his excitement. She smiled as she looked at her family, accepting the hugs from her extended family as they all congratulated her on her win.
"Now..." Her Poppy clapped his hands together, rubbing them as he looked at the gathered group. "Whose hungry?" He grinned. And that sent the entire family into another uproar. It always seemed the Berry-Hudson-Hummel-Andersons were always down for a good meal. She loved her family, remember?