Bella has a notebook. It's mostly for show. Her politics teacher wants notes turned in periodically, and she wouldn't be too astonished if another teacher took up the habit, so she writes insightless outlines of the lectures - "Auxins are a type of hormone found in plants; they elongate cells among other functions", that sort of thing.

She doesn't know who this new person is. Maybe she was sick a lot before, or just not very punctual, or she only just added the class? Hm.