CHAPTER 3:
The next morning, CR woke Rachel up for the day.
"Morning, sweetie! We've got a whole day full of fun planned," CR announced.
"What are we doing today?" Rachel asked.
"After we have some breakfast, I figured we could fit in some swimming time," CR said.
"Yay!" Rachel said as she quickly got out of the tent.
Outside, Denise used a frying pan to cook eggs over the fire when CR and Rachel joined her.
"Morning, Rachel. You in the mood for eggs?" Denise asked.
"You betcha!" Rachel exclaimed.
"Glad you are because they are ready," Denise announced, getting out paper plates and plastic forks so she could serve the eggs.
Once all the eggs were served, they each sat down at the picnic table to eat their breakfast.
"Ma, these are super yummy," Rachel said, approving.
"Glad you like them. Especially since this was the first time I've cooked them over a fire," Denise admitted.
"Well, regardless, you've done well, babe," CR said, also approving.
"Thank you," Denise replied.
"So, are we really going swimming today?" Rachel asked.
"Yep. We'll go in the water this afternoon," Denise confirmed.
"Yay!" Rachel said, excited.
A few hours later, the family put their swimsuits and life jackets on before heading to the lake.
"Mom, why do we have to wear life jackets?" Rachel asked.
"This water can be rather deep. If you have a hard time swimming, it'll keep you floating," CR explained before the family jumped into the lake.
While the family was enjoying themselves in the lake, a shark's fin could be seen in the distance.
"What kind of fish live in this lake?" Rachel asked, curious.
"Well, aside from all the trout, there's this big one called a muskie," CR explained.
"How big is it?" Rachel asked.
"It's so big and heavy, it'd take more than one set of hands to grab," Denise added.
"What got you so interested in fish?" CR asked.
"That field trip I went on last spring," Rachel said.
"Oh, you mean the one where you went to the aquarium?" Denise asked to which Rachel nodded 'yes' A moment later, CR saw the shark's fin in the distance and thought she was crazy.
"Um, am I seeing things? There's no way there could possibly be a shark in this lake," CR thought.
"Shark? What shark?" Rachel asked.
When Rachel saw the shark's fin, she screamed in horror and then swam over to CR.
"Whoa, Rachel...calm down; there's no way that could be a real shark," CR assured their daughter.
"Are you sure?" Rachel asked, worried.
"Positive. This is a small lake; there's no way any real sharks could be around here," CR said, trying to comfort Rachel.
"Then how do you explain that shark fin?" Rachel asked.
"It's probably just a prank," CR thought.
Whoever was wearing the fin noticed the family wasn't trying to swim to safety. It meant that CR and Denise were too smart to fall for such a prank. So the prankster swam away in defeat.
"Yeah, you better get out of here if you know what's good for you!" CR yelled as the prankster continued to swim away.
"Phew, glad that's over," Rachel said, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Agreed. Will you be okay, Rachel?" Denise asked, concerned.
"Yeah. That was scary," Rachel shuddered, breathing heavily.
"How about we head back to shore and take a moment for you to calm down, and then we can get back to swimming," Denise suggested.
"Okay," Rachel said as the family swam back to their campsite.
It took Rachel about a half-hour to calm down from the prank before she was okay to get back in the lake. Luckily, when the family got back to swimming, there were no more shark pranks. This meant they could get back to their relaxing weekend exactly as planned.