No kidnapping, but there may be a murder.

Jared did not come home from school today at the usual time which is 2:45. Yesterday, he stayed after school to help set up chairs for the orchestra performance at open house last night. We found out from our next door neighbor that the bus was 55 minutes late getting to the school to take them home. Our neighbor Tanner, actually got so tired of waiting for the bus, that he just walked home.
Today, I was over at a friends house where Marion was doing an electrical job. Their son, who is Jared's age walked in the door just as I was going home. Jared and Jake are on the some bus so I expected to see Jared when I got home. When Jared wasn't here, I called Jake to see if Jared and Tanner were on the bus. He told me that they weren't on the bus. Jared's cell phone is sitting on the table, so of course I can't just call him and see where the heck he is. I next called my neighbor to see if Tanner was home. She said that no Tanner wasn't home. Now I got in my car and drove up the street to see if I could see the boys, no luck. While I was driving and looking, I called Jared's school to see if they could shed any light on the situation. The person I talked to put me on hold, but came back and said that as far as they knew, all the buses were on time. By now it was time to go and get Diana. So while I drove to her school, I called Jake back and questioned him further. He then told me that originally Jared and Tanner had been on the bus, but that someone came on and took about 15 kids off of that bus and put them onto another bus. So now as I wait for Diana to come out of her school, I call Jared's school back and I tell them this story. I am now beginning to be a bit concerned. Did some strange person kidnap 15 kids off of the bus? Finally the dean gets on the phone with me. He tells me that he was upset by how late the bus was yesterday. He was told that the reason for the bus being late was that the substitute driver got lost. How is that for reassuring information? So he personally watched today as all the buses were loaded. He said they all left the parking lot at 2:25. I say to him that it is now 3:25 and so why has it taken a whole hour for the bus to bring my son 2 miles home. Now I am really beginning to worry. And I have a few words with this administrator about what kind of place is he running where a whole busload of kids gets lost for an hour. He tells me that he will call transportation and gives me the number so I can make a complaint as well.
Next I get a call from a number I do not know. And wouldn't you know if it isn't Jared calling to say that he and Tanner decided to walk home. Apparently they have had a fabulous time making several stops along the way. Also they tell me that Jake had to have known that they were walking, because A) they told him they were going to walk when they got off the bus and B) Jake made the L for loser sign to them when the bus drove past. When we asked Jake why he didn't tell me, he said "Oh, I forgot." So I guess the whole thing was a big misunderstanding. Next I made the slightly embarrassing call to the school to apologize. "Sorry to have alarmed you, my son isn't kidnapped, but his punishment for worrying all of us may be the death penalty." Now, that I know he is alive, I may just kill him.