after school

DJ's school had parent teacher conferences last week, so he was out at noon Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Kelly gets out of her school at 12:15. Their schools are not that far away from each other, but we wanted to make sure to get Kelly on time, so Mike asked DJ to hurry out on Tuesday. He did, but being DJ, he was too early and thought we were late, so started lecturing us until he saw that it was 11:56 when he got in the car.... We ended up being early to pick up Kelly and waited in the car before going in. Boy was she happy to have her brother *pick her up* from school!

I should point out that Mike and I are both on time people. I mean, really on time. The sit in the car because we'd rather be early than late and still go in 5 minutes early people.

So on Wednesday we are less worried about the pick up time and leave the house later than we did on Tuesday. We arrive at his school at 12:04 and we don't see him. I get out of the car at 12:06 to look for him and ask one of his teachers if she has seen him. (we still have to get Kelly too) As she is letting me know what a wonderful student she thinks DJ is, she is calling the office to see if he is up there. Maybe he is mad that we are "late" and went to the office to call us to see where we are?
She says he isn't there. Hmmm. I check the cafeteria, the gym, the front of the school. I am starting to get upset here. Everyone is gone. Did he try and get on the bus and go home? I don't think he would do that but...
I get the baby out of the car and grab the stroller so Mike can leave to get Kelly. I walk towards the public library to see if he is with the kids sitting out front. I get to the corner and I know DJ would not have crossed such a major street without permission --- I walk back to the front of the school and call the office myself and leave a message (!) saying I still can't find him.
I walk to the other corner and I am near panicking at this point, turn the corner and see him walking towards me.
I burst into tears.
Which made him burst into tears, so maybe I should have handled it differently...
It's 12:26 pm
Alright, I know he is 11, but wow -- it is an awful feeling not knowing where your kid is. Even for 20 minutes.
It ends up that a teacher for the older students told him to wait upstairs even after he told her that we should be there any minute -- and then another teacher told him to go up, so he did. He only came down when one of his teachers who saw me earlier told him I was waiting.

I think I should be mad about all of this, but I am just making him take his phone to school now. I will be happy to explain to someone why he has it if it gets confiscated.