The correct answer is C. metaphor.
"Bright beams" that Nature has wrapped in black are Stella's eyes. In a way, it is also a simile, but every metaphor is a contracted simile (without "like").
There are other literary devices in this passage as well: contrast (black - bright), rhetorical question (one that doesn't have an answer, or an answer is obvious)...
It would be task-oriented because teachers and parents don't often get together to have social get togethers.
To annoy, irritate, or upset someone.
