Electric guitar for a 13 year old to play in her high school jazz band?

My daughter got some good news. She was invited to play jazz guitar for her high school's junior jazz band.

She's 13 and has to walk about 30 minutes to get to school. She was thinking of lugging her Epi Les Paul Standard Pro (9lbs?) each way, but I said it might be best to just get her a new guitar that she could keep at school. They have storage and it's secure. So, obviously the guitar shopping is fun for me too!

Any recommendations? I would like to keep it below $500 (used).

I also have a very important question: at this level, do you think the type of pickups and/or body (eg. solid vs semi hollow) matters very much?

A few considerations:
a) she is small, so a 335 type guitar would be enormous, even a 339 might be big
b) she loves rock/metal and if it was her just going by aesthetics alone, she'd likely get something "pointy".

Thanks!