The car has been getting hot like that for a while now due to it leaking coolant (which I now think is from the water pump vent/weep hole) and she wasn't topping it off but maybe once a week or two weeks and it'd get low then get hot. I don't believe it's ever got above 3/4 though. When the coolant would get low she said it'd get up to 3/4 when stopped at a light or something, then when moving it'd cool down to half rapidly. I think this was because it was low on fluid and air was in the system.

Well now the coolant is full and it's getting hot on the highway so I think the water pump is bad. Plus there's the noise and the leak in that area.