Missing Child

So on the second day of school the school decided to add an extra kindergarten bus to the busing route because on the first day it took 2 hours for the bus to deliver the children. This is the first year ever our school is bussing in the middle of the day for kindergarten. 

They put new kids on each bus, and Brooke's bus number was changed completely. 

I waited at the new house for the bus, and it only took 1 hour for the bus to drive down our street, only, it didn't stop by our house. So I jumped in the car to follow it to the next stop, figuring they were going to have brooke get off there. Nope, she didn't get off.  So I start to panic and follow the bus out of our subdivision and I see it pull into Maria's subdivision, so I pulled over at Janes and whipped out my phone and called Maria. 

"Maria! Brooke didn't' get off the bus, run out and get her off with Blake!"

Maria- "Blake didn't' ride the bus today, but I will run out and flag it down"!

I am on the phone with Maria as she stops the bus, and asks for Brookelle Byram. The bus driver looked at her list and said that Brookelle is not on the bus.  Maria asked if she was supposed to be on a different bus and the bus driver said, "No, she is supposed to be on this bus, but she didn't ride the bus home today." Maria then tells the bus driver that she DID ride the bus home today and she was on the phone with her mother who said the bus didn't stop to drop her off!  The bus driver told Maria she couldn't walk through the bus as that was against the rules, and that she needed to quickly start delivering the rest of these kids home. Maria said, "Well, Brookelle Byram is lost, what are you going to do about it!" 

So the bus driver got on her radio and called the school. The school called Transportation, and Maria had to get off the bus. 

Maria told me get off the phone and call transportation.

I called transportation and was on hold with them while they tried to find which bus Brooke got on. Meanwhile, I am plugged into the charger of my car because my phone was going to die and Ivy was incredibly poopy in the back seat. 

Transportation told me she would have to call me back because she needed my line to call around. I wait 10 minutes. Meanwhile I call Jane to come get Ivy (I can't leave the house just in case she shows up). All my sister in laws and Jane arrive in the circle. Transportation calls and tells me they still haven't located her. They are now checking the school for her. And calling bus drivers again. They will call me back in a minute. 

I decide to put on Facebook for all my friends to watch for her to get off the bus, and call my old neighbor at the rental to check the street there for her. 

10 minutes later they call back. "No, we still can't find her. I am going to put you on speaker and I need you to give all of us a description of what she looks like what she is wearing." As I start to tell them what she looks like I got so scared and starting crying. Badly. The woman said, "Ma'am, I need you to calm down or hand the phone to someone else."  I finally got out what she was wearing and what her backpack looks like and they tell me they will call me back after talking to the bus drivers again to find out if she was on their bus. 

Cala is beside herself at this point and jumps in her car to drive to the school and start looking for Brooke. 

About 3 minutes later they call back and they found her. She was on that original bus, that bus Maria got onto, THE WHOLE TIME!  She was now the last person on the bus and they were bringing her home. 

What happened was when she got on the bus at the school, they asked her name, she said "Brooke." The bus driver marked a girl named Brooklyn. When the real brooklyn got on the bus, she asked Brooke her last name and she said "Byram" The day before Brooke was the only Byram on the bus, but now with the new routes Blake Byram Marias boy was on this bus too.  She marked the first Byram she saw which was Blake. Blake never got on the Bus since Maria picked him up that day. So the bus never stopped at our stop because according to her list Brookelle wasn't on the bus. 

When the bus pulled up with her on it the bus driver must have thought I was going to yell at her because she got all defensive and told me Brooke told her the wrong name when she got on the bus. But once the driver saw I wasn't mad and we figured out what happened she felt terrible and apologized 100 times. 

Brooke was having such a great time in the back with her friends that she didn't notice the bus leave our subdivision. And brooke has explicit instructions NOT to get off the bus unless is it by our house! She said she saw Maria get on the bus for a minute, but since she didn't know she was lost she didn't say anything to Maria. 

I made myself so sick that day worrying that I felt sick all day. And had to lay down for most of it.