School was nothing but a hindrance. Judith had more important; more pressing things to be doing, but here she was in school because the deal between she and her dad was that if she didn't go, she didn't hunt and Judith knew he meant it. The town needed her help too much to just sit on her ass in a classroom learning useless shit she'd never need in real life, but it was better than being benched indefinitely for disobeying.
The bell rang and Judith loaded up her backpack, jogging down the stairs to the first floor and then out of the school, heading for the student parking lot. She'd been onto something, she knew she'd been onto something and if she didn't act fast, then she was going to lose her window of opportunity and that chimera was going to hurt someone else. She and Derek had tracked it down to two potential suspects that day he'd been injured and, while she should've been doing homework in the library during study hall, she'd been texting with Carl to nail down the potentials every day since. Carl had gotten a hit today. Judith needed to get there.
She didn't notice him at first, because she was on a mission, making a beeline for her truck, bag slung over one shoulder and hair pulled up in a sloppy bun at the top of her head because she'd tossed it up with the mirror in her locker so that she could just get going.
The sound of Derek's voice caught her attention and she slowed, looking over as he jogged up to meet her. "Well lookit that, he lives," she drawled, a little smile tugging at the corners of her mouth as she reached the truck and pulled out her keys to let herself into it. "Thought maybe you done got tangled up with another one when I wasn't there to save your ass, or somethin'," she added, looking over her shoulder at him, half-teasing and half-expressing her upset that she hadn't ever heard from him again. She'd liked hanging out with Derek. Judith didn't like people very often, so when she decided that she did, that stuck with her.