Author's Note:

Cripes, it took me long enough to finish the first assignment, huh? This thing completely carried me away and would have been over 5,000 words if I hadn't done a little deleting. Anyways, thank you to all the other students who gave me feedback on my pre-class assignment! I greatly appreciated the feedback and will take everything into account.

So, the gif prompt was really fun to follow. I hope all of you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. And for anyone wondering, I picture a young Stefan resembling Ryan Sheckler. If some of you don't know what he looks like, go Google him. You won't be disappointed. ;) Anyways, happy reading!

Homework Assignment #1:

Action and Reaction

I shuffled awkwardly through the crowd of rowdy, hollering teenagers gathered in the empty field beside Forks High School, grumbling in frustration as I pushed myself up onto the balls of my feet, searching for my group of friends. Being five foot four certainly had its pros and cons, but right now, hopelessly lost amongst a sea of my taller classmates during the Homecoming Bonfire, it was most certainly a con. The one and only pro being that I was small enough to squeeze in between the bodies while remaining mostly unnoticed.

Where are they? I thought as I resorted to jumping up and down a few times to get a better look around. They were supposed to wait for me in the parking lot!

My conscience chose that moment to remind me that I would have found them much easier if I'd shown up at the time I said I would, causing a feeling of guilt to flare in my chest. But even then a small part of me still resented my friends for hooking me into coming to this, considering the fact that I had a date for the dance tomorrow night a moot point. Of course, just the thought of the boy that had asked me to the dance made a rush of warmth creep up my neck and a shy smile turn the corners of my lips up. Tucking a stray lock of hair behind my ear, I caught my bottom lip between my teeth, hoping to spy him somewhere in the crowd.

Make up your mind! the voice in the back of my head scolded. Either be glad you'll get the chance to spend some time with your ridiculously hot date, or keep complaining!

I'd never had a Homecoming date before, though, so I'd never seen a reason to attend the bonfire or dance. It would be the first year that Angela and Jessica weren't going to invite me to tag along to the dance with them as a courtesy just so I wouldn't feel left out. I appreciated the gesture on both their parts, but I didn't see much use in getting dressed up only to sit forlornly at one of the tables, sipping on punch while I watched my two best friends dance the night away with their dates. That didn't sound like a good time to me.

This year – my Senior year – was guaranteed to be a good time. Right?

The crowd began to thin the closer I got to the bonfire, making it easier for me to scan the area surrounding it for Jessica, Angela, and the rest of my friends. I spotted them standing in a cluster off to the right and smiled, sighing in relief.

Finally, I thought, picking up my pace to reach them quicker, already thinking of asking Angela to help me find my date, when I suddenly caught sight of him. I stopped so quickly that I nearly succeeded in tripping over my own feet, my gaze immediately fixing on his face.

I couldn't help but stare.

It was my Homecoming date, Stefan Valerious, in all his glory along with his twin brother, Vladimir, standing amongst my group of friends, talking and laughing with Mike and Eric. Jessica and Angela were standing a few feet away, their heads close together as they whispered to one another.

Stefan and Vladimir were easily two of the most popular boys in the school. They were foreign, - having moved here from Romania last year – charismatic, polite, and drop dead gorgeous. The fact that I had actually attracted Stefan's attention was something I'd never completely understand.

Of course, it might have had something to do with the fact that I, in prime Bella-esque fashion, gave him a bloody nose after accidentally hitting him in the face with a basketball in gym class. And as if that wasn't embarrassing enough, to add insult to injury, as soon as I saw all the blood that came out of his nose I had to run to the bathroom or risk tossing my cookies all over the gymnasium floor. One would think that he wouldn't want to come within fifty feet of me or risk more bodily harm, but oddly, that incident only helped to break the ice between us, so to speak. Otherwise, I doubted he would have even given me a second glance.

No one had noticed my approach yet since they were concentrating on their own conversations. I was close enough to the bonfire that I could just barely feel the heat radiating off the blaze, taking the edge off the chill in the air. Even then I lifted my arms and curled my hands around my biceps, at a loss for what else to do with the suddenly useless appendages, not because I was cold. The noise of the crowd around me faded into the background, becoming a dull thrumming in the back of my skull, as I admired the rich glow the light from the fire gave Stefan's skin, the flames reflecting off the beautiful light green of his eyes and turning them a lovely burnt orange.

My gaze dropped to his lips, watching them move as he spoke, and I found myself unconsciously nibbling on my bottom lip, imagining what his mouth would taste like and suddenly fervently hopping that I would get the chance to kiss him. Heat bloomed in the pit of my stomach and rapidly spread outwards, warming me faster than the heat from the bonfire could. I swore I could feel my stomach fluttering softly and realized that this is what I was supposed to feel when I looked at a boy that I genuinely liked. My body was crying out for me to get closer, longing to feel him pull me into the circle of his arms and press me against his strong body. Just imagining what the muscles of his chest and arms would feel like under my hands made me tremble with excitement.

I sucked in a sharp breath, the scent of the smoke and burning wood filling my lungs, as I realized I had momentarily forgotten to breathe. What was happening to me? I had never felt so unhinged…so out of control before.

This is what I had been waiting practically my entire high school career to experience. My appetite had finally been awakened and I craved more, so much more.

Before I even registered what was going on, my legs had begun to carry me forward, my yearning to be near him overriding my previous desire to stay still. I figured I'd done enough admiring from afar anyways. It was time to start enjoying my very first high school bonfire.

With my gaze still fixed on Stefan, I quickened my pace, barely missing getting trampled by a group of guys who were passing a football back and forth. Luckily, they were paying better attention than I was, which helped me to escape injury. I waved apologetically at the group with my head ducked down in between my shoulders, embarrassed that I'd allowed myself to become so distracted by Stefan, and turned my attention back to reaching my friends.

As I was turning my head, I inhaled to call out to Jessica and Angela, and came face to face, or rather face to chest, with Stefan. I squeaked in fright, – in a highly undignified manner, might I add – practically jumping out of my own skin and instinctively lifted my hands, bracing them against his chest. I noticed immediately that he was indeed exceptionally muscular, at least from what I could feel through the soft material of his shirt.

"I'm so sorry, Bella," he said, making an obvious effort to contain his laughter at my reaction. He brought one of his hands up and wrapped it around mine, giving it a comforting squeeze. "I didn't mean to scare you."

A lump the size of a golf ball decided to lodge itself in my throat at that precise moment and I struggled to swallow around it, my gaze locked on his hand clasped over mine with a small amount of fascination. His skin was warm and soft, his grip comfortable and familiar, almost like we'd held hands and touched one another dozens of times before. My heartbeat picked up, fluttering erratically in my chest as if it was seconds away from taking flight.

Lifting my eyes to meet his, and realizing exactly how close we were, made my brain turn to custard and liquefied my bones. The only thing keeping me from crumpling to the ground like a newborn baby deer was the soft pressure of his hand over mine. I shook my head as I tried to remember how to form words, heat beginning to slowly creep up my neck.

"I-it's okay," I stammered, my tongue thick and heavy. "I should have been paying closer attention."

His mouth stretched into a brilliant smile and my heart hammered even harder against the inside of my ribcage. The traitorous pounding was so loud in my ears that I was sure he'd be able to hear it.

"Well, I'm glad I found you. I've been wondering where you were," he replied, his thick Romanian accent as smooth as freshly churned butter. I could listen to him talk about everything and nothing for hours and hours without pause. I never realized that I had a weakness for foreign accents until I met him.

He gently pulled my hands away from his chest and guided me over to where the rest of my friends were gathered, aware that one of his hands was still holding mine. I bobbed my head, a silly grin sliding onto my face as I walked beside him, suddenly extremely glad that I came. I glanced away from Stefan when he came to a stop and saw Jessica and Angela standing in front of me, both of them smirking knowingly.

I shot a shaky half-smile back at them. "Hey, sorry it took me so long. I-"

"You were trying to decide if it was worth coming, right?" Jessica asked, cutting me off before I had the chance to offer up my excuse. Which wasn't a very good one, by the way.

I ducked my head, my dark hair thankfully concealing my face, as my cheeks flared a bright pink and hoped that the light from the fire would conceal my blush because my body language had just broadcasted how guilty I was like a neon sign flashing obscenely above me. I sighed heavily as I lifted my head to look at them again.

"I'm sorry. I know you guys were probably waiting for me."

"Yeah, we did. For nearly half an hour," Angela said, and my guilt must have been obvious on my face because she reached over and gave my upper arm a reassuring squeeze. "But it's okay. You're glad to be here now, right?" She tipped her head in Stefan's direction.

I smiled bashfully and briefly glanced up at Stefan through my eyelashes, my cheeks darkening even more when he winked at me. I quickly turned my attention back to Angela. "Yeah, you could say that," I told her. After pausing for only a moment, I said the first thing that came to mind. "I didn't miss anything exciting, did I?"

I inwardly smacked myself. Did I seriously just ask that?

I honestly didn't care if I had missed something or not. I was sure that Jessica or Angela wouldn't hesitate to fill me in on the entire story if I had. The only reason that I would be disappointed is if Stefan hadn't been here. Quickly flicking my eyes down to our joined hands reaffirmed that I wasn't experiencing some kind of elaborate hallucination.

Jessica shook her head and threw in a good-natured eye roll for added effect. "No, not at all. A few of the teachers set up some food in the gym though. We were going to head in there to see what's good. You two want anything?" she asked, looking between myself and Stefan.

"Well, we can come with –"

Once again, I got cut off, but this time by Angela. "Oh, no, you guys stay out here and chat. We won't be long anyways. We'll get a little bit of everything."

And before I could get another word in edgewise, Jessica and Angela had grabbed their boyfriends and disappeared in the direction of the gym. Only after I noticed Vladimir's ashy blonde hair trailing after them, did I realize that it was just me and Stefan.

Alone.

Together.

All of a sudden my heart was once again racing in my chest and I scrambled for something to say to him, but, except for an abnormally large collection of dust and spider webs, my head was empty. Thankfully, Stefan took a breath to speak and I expelled a soft sigh of relief, glad that the awkward silence wasn't going to stretch on for any longer than it needed to, then turned my head up to look at him.

"Jessica told me earlier that this is your first high school dance. Why haven't you gone to one before?" he asked innocently, his gaze curious.

I groaned inwardly and fought off the impulse to look away to hide another blush. Of course Jessica would be the one to fill him in on that little piece of trivia. I was scared to find out what else she had managed to tell him.

"I've never had a date before, and…I don't dance," I confessed sheepishly.

His expression turned thoughtful, his dark eyebrows pinching together only just, and I was suddenly mesmerized by the way the dancing flames reflected in his eyes. We were still surrounded on all sides by most of the school, but for all I knew it was just me and him standing in front of a bonfire in the middle of an empty field. Everything insignificant just faded into the background, becoming nothing more than white noise. A sense of peace fell over me and I felt that even if he didn't say anything for the rest of the night, as long as I could keep staring into his eyes like I was now everything would be just fine.

I just barely registered as I took a step toward him, not really meaning to. It felt as though I was being drawn toward him, like we were a pair of polarizing magnets that could neither deny nor control the force that brought them together.

"Then how about we do a little practicing?" he murmured, taking my free hand and positioning it on his shoulder, then slid his hand around to press firmly against the small of my back, urging me forward so our bodies fit snugly together.

My eyes widened as I stared back at him, the churning and fluttering in my stomach intensifying. My fingers curled around his shoulder reflexively, not failing to notice the hardness of the muscle beneath his skin. "Here?" I breathed, a tiny bubble of nervousness bobbing to the surface of my mind.

He nodded once, his hypnotizing eyes locked on mine, and started slowly swaying his hips back and forth, the gentle pressure of his hand on my back guiding me along with him. The closeness of his body and intoxicating scent of his cologne inspired a different kind of warmth to spread through me, making me fight to keep my breathing under control. The impulse to bury my face in his neck was almost too overpowering for me to ignore.

When he started doing a basic box step, I panicked and looked down, not wanting to trample all over his feet or, even worse, trip and make him reconsider ever asking me to be his date. But I didn't want to embarrass him either. I knew that my "Two Left Feet Syndrome" wasn't going to decide to take a night off.

Stefan's hand was suddenly beneath my chin, gently coaxing my head back up, and as soon as my eyes met his all those frantic and anxious feelings immediately disappeared, being replaced with a calmness and serenity that I had never experienced before. All of these sensations were so foreign and new, but the tenderness of his gaze, the security of his embrace, and especially the delicious tingles that turned my skin to gooseflesh wherever he touched me just felt so right.

"Keep your eyes on mine," he whispered, our faces so close together that I could feel his warm breath crawl lazily across my cheek. A shiver that I'm sure he noticed seared a blazing trail down my spine.

My eyelids fluttered, breath catching in my throat, as he slid his hand across my neck, his fingers combing gingerly through my hair and running over the small bumps of my vertebrae on its return to the small of my back. My knees wobbled, taking on the consistency of gelatin, when he flexed his hips into mine instead of pushing me against him, and the flicker of mischief I caught in his smoldering gaze made my heart skip a beat. With our bodies once again pressed firmly together he resumed the box step.

"Feel the way my body moves," he instructed, swinging his hips in a seductive figure eight. "Keep your arms and shoulders relaxed; let me lead you in the direction I want to go. But, most importantly, trust your body."

I desperately wanted to look back down at my feet, finding it very hard to follow his instructions with the knowledge in the back of my mind that my body had failed me many times before, mostly when I was least expecting it, and was bound to sabotage me again, but it was like a spell had been cast on me. I was no more capable of breaking my gaze away from his than I was detaching myself from his body. Even though I was more than a head shorter than him – my line of sight gave me an excellent view of his oh so attractive collar bones – we fit together snuggly, like a pair of corresponding puzzle pieces.

I tried my best, but not all of my steps were as perfect as his. I stomped on his feet a few times and, to my horror, nearly tripped, but I didn't end up falling thanks to how tightly Stefan was holding me. Thankfully, his balance was much better than mine, or I'm sure we would have ended up on the ground in an extremely compromising position.

But you really wouldn't mind that, now would you? purred that naughty voice in the back of my mind, making my cheeks flame bright pink again.

But Stefan, bless him, was the perfect gentleman. Honestly, he was every woman's dream come true. His parents had certainly not left any room for error while they were raising him, and I had a sneaking suspicion that his brother's manners were just as good. Whenever I stepped on his foot or started to lose my balance, he paused and gave me a few seconds to regain my bearings before carrying on, his encouraging gaze constantly trained on my face. Every so often he would change direction, giving subtle clues in the way of a gentle push or pull as a signal, and rewarded me with a triumphant smile if I was successful in reading his body language. Just the fact that he could look so proud of me over something so simple – for him, at least – made my stomach flutter uncontrollably. His dancing was impeccable and I knew I was going to be in good hands, quite literally, during Homecoming tomorrow night.

I wasn't even keeping track of how long we'd been dancing together. I was completely lost in the movement, - lost in him – astounded that my body could even listen to my commands when it came to following dance steps, and didn't even find it odd that my friends hadn't returned yet. I didn't want the night to end and I certainly didn't want him to let go of me or break his gaze away from mine. I was nowhere near being even a third of the dancer he was, but with him as a partner I knew I'd be able to enjoy it much more than I normally would.

He took a step backwards and removed his supporting hand from my back simultaneously, then carefully guided me into a slow spin. A giddy smile stretched across my mouth as I let him turn me around, the both of us laughing softly, and eagerly stepped back into the circle of his arms to continue, but stopped short when our eyes locked. His stare was…different somehow, but I couldn't quite put my finger on exactly what had changed about it. His eyes were still the same endless pools of sea green foam that I'd been staring into, lit by the flickering orange of the flames, but now something had shifted. I could feel it. The air between us was practically crackling with energy, our bodies serving as the conduits for this strange and exciting electric charge.

I inhaled deeply to calm the racing of my heart and noticed that he smelled faintly of sweat now, but the scent only intensified the allure of his cologne instead of masking it. My mind was a whirlwind of activity, a cacophony of thoughts and emotions that was impossible for me to decipher. The only thing that made sense to me was the desire, the raw desire to kiss him that suddenly gripped me tight and pushed away all thought and reason. I could no longer deny my impulses; I'd been turned into a creature of instinct and the insignificant amount of space between us now felt like a chasm.

I saw the intense desire I felt mirrored in his eyes, his pupils so drastically dilated that only a thin ring of color remained. My lips parted in invitation as his head came forward and when our mouths finally met, it was like the stars had aligned.

I was kissing Stefan Valerious.

He was kissing me back.

And it was glorious.

Even then, I had no idea what I was doing, and I'm sure my virginity was obvious to him in that moment. I was more than happy to let him take the lead though. His kiss seared me, but I welcomed the heat, embraced it. His hand that was still poised on the base of my back bunched into the material of my shirt while the other came up and curled around the back of my head, anchoring my body to his. My arms snaked around his neck, clinging to him desperately, and completely surrendered to the kiss.

I was his for the taking. Never before had I wanted a boy in the way that I wanted Stefan now. I just wanted him to touch me. Everywhere. I wanted to feel his skin sliding against mine and I was sure that had we actually been alone, clothes would be coming off.

I gasped, my lips parting slightly, when his hand cupped my backside and gave it a firm, affectionate squeeze. His hips flexed into mine and I was suddenly aware of his hardening erection. I moaned against his mouth, hot desire pooling in the cradle of my hips, and tightened my grip on his neck. His answering groan as he swiped his tongue along my bottom lip turned my blood to molten magma and I expected us to burst into flames at any second.

I opened my mouth wider without a second thought, granting him entrance, and my tongue met his with a fervor that I didn't think I was capable of. He tasted of crisp, refreshing mint and I could see myself becoming severely addicted to kissing him.

Who am I kidding? I thought as I tangled my fingers into his hair. I'm already addicted. Hook, line, and sinker.

I lost all concept of time. The only things I was aware of was our bodies pressed together and his mouth moving with mine. Nothing else mattered. It could have been a matter of minutes or hours, but suddenly, the sound of someone clearing their throat penetrated the bubble that was surrounding me and Stefan, bringing my head crashing back down onto my shoulders from where it had been floating amongst the clouds. We pulled apart abruptly, our heads turning in unison to the source of the sound, and a lead weight dropped into the pit of my stomach when I saw Jessica, Angela, Mike, Eric, and even Stefan's brother standing around us with their mouths hanging open. They'd finally returned with food for all of us and had ended up catching a show.

Who knows how much they saw! I thought frantically as embarrassment flooded through me.

Jessica was the first one to break the awkward silence. "Well, I'm glad to see you two are getting along. Hungry?" she asked, stepping forward and extending a couple plates of food toward us.

I bobbed my head and accepted the plates, forcing myself not to make eye contact with her. "Thanks, Jess," I mumbled as I turned to hand one of the plates to Stefan.

Our gazes locked and he winked, a half-smirk plastered on those perfectly kissable lips of his. I smiled back, knowing I would be fantasizing about kissing him again for the rest of the night. Hell, for the rest of my life, more than likely.

Yeah, tomorrow night is going to be amazing.