Fish Tales from Tucker Lake

Every day for a week, Pat secretly worked on his plan. He practiced lodging himself in the weeds and doing backflips. At first he would fall sideways when he tried to flip, but he kept at it. By the end of the week he could do five perfect flips in a row. He felt ready to do it for real.
Shark saw him and asked what he was doing. Pat told him he was going to go get yanked and escape from the angler like Backflip did. Shark laughed. “You don’t have the nerve.” That made him even more determined to carry out his plan.
Shark swam away, still laughing, and ran into Baldwin.
Shark said, “Hey. Want to hear something funny? Your best friend is heading to the dock to try your escape trick.”
“What? No, he can’t!”
Baldwin swam as fast as he could to try to stop Pat from getting yanked. What have I done? My best friend could be killed because of me. Baldwin saw Pat 30 metres ahead of him.
“Pat! No. Stop!” Pat couldn’t hear him and kept going. He was close to the dock now. Baldwin got within three metres of Pat, and then it happened. Pat saw a bug like the one Baldwin took, and he went for it. Baldwin’s heart raced as Pat’s lips curled around the bug.
“No! Oh, Pat. No!”
Pat grabbed the bug and started to sputter and gasp. Then he spat it out. He was disappointed because it was a real bug. There was no hook attached to it. Baldwin swam up to him and hugged him.
“Thank goodness you’re all right. Look, you can’t do this backflip trick.”
“Why not? You did. And I’ve decided I want to be more like you.”
“No, Pat. You don’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I lied, Pat. I lied to you and everybody else. I didn’t do a backflip to escape. The fisherman let me go. I’m so sorry. If I knew you could get hurt, I never would have done it. Let’s go back. I’ll tell them the truth. I’m just a small, ordinary fish who told a big, bold lie. I don’t deserve my nickname. I’m just plain Baldwin.”
Pat was shocked. “You lied to me? You’re my best friend. How could you do that? I could’ve been killed!
Baldwin couldn’t stop shaking. “I’m sorry. When you took that fly…” Baldwin started to cry. “I was afraid I’d lost you forever.”
“Don’t cry. I’m okay. And you’ll never lose me as a friend.”
The two fish hugged and headed back to their school. Pat was leading the way when a jackfish burst out of the weeds and went after him. The jackfish bared its huge sharp teeth and snapped his mouth shut. He just missed clamping down on Pat’s tail. Baldwin caught up to Pat.
“Dive. Now!” he said to Pat.
Pat dropped down to the bottom of the lake and Baldwin swam in front of the jackfish, drawing its attention away from his friend. Pat watched in horror as Baldwin lured the jackfish in the opposite direction. Baldwin was swimming as fast as he could, but the jackfish was closing in on him. It got closer and closer and then Pat lost sight of them when they entered a weedbed.
He waited to see if Baldwin came out, but there was no sign of him. Pat swam around the weedbed. He swam through the weedbed. He swam over the weedbed. “Baldwin?”
The longer he searched, the more frightened he became. He tried not to cry. He waited at the spot where Baldwin had led the jackfish into the weeds, but his friend never came out. The jackfish must have caught him. Broken-hearted, Pat swam back to the school. He vowed to keep Baldwin’s secret. And he would tell them how Baldwin gave his life to save him from the jackfish.