I walk down the crowded hall, head down, hood up. I'm not what you would call one of the popular kids, not even cool by association. People don't exactly hate me, but no one really likes me either, I'm kinda just there. Just a face you vaguely recall passing in the halls, no one special.

But my dad?

He's awesome, but I can't tell anyone about it. He's got a cool secret that he didn't tell me until I was twelve.

He's a super hero.

Well kinda.

He saved the world at one point, but no one will ever know. No one except me and his ex anyway.

My dad has a really close friend, and by close I mean he lives inside my dad. He's an alien, kind of like a parasite to be quite honest, but if you keep him fed and everything you don't have anything to worry about. But if you don't keep him fed, I just hope you don't like your liver.

His name is Venom, he's called a symbiote, and he's so cool. He can heal my dad if he hurts himself, he can save people, he can climb up building - even though dad's not to keen on heights -, he's freaking bullet proof, he's the whole indestructible package. Well except for fire and any noises beyond a certain level of hurts, but other than that indestructible.

I've literally begged dad to let me have Venom for just a few hours, even just a few minutes, but he never lets me. He says it's too dangerous, that if I'm not compatible, Venom could kill me.

But you see my logic goes like this. Dad and Venom are compatible, right? And I'm my dad's daughter. So if dad is compatible, then it would prove to reason that I should be compatible. But there is one small caveat to my logic.
I have a mutant X gene.

And that's what dad is cautious of.

He thinks the mutant X gene will throw everything off and that my body will reject Venom and tear itself apart or something like that. But my mutation isn't even that cool or useful unless I'm living in the dark.
Literally.

My mutation allows me to see in the dark and I can't turn it off. Unfortunately, there is also a physical sign of it too. My eyes are always dilated, like they are almost all pupil, barely any color to them. And because they are always dilated, I have to constantly wear sunglasses because the lights hurt my eyes.
Like seriously.

Year book pictures, classroom, restaurants, malls, Mrs. Cho's convenience store, everywhere, I always have sunglasses on unless there are no lights on or if it's night.

Someone rams into my shoulder, hard enough to knock my sunglasses off.

"Oops," the junior laughs, kicking my sunglasses down the hall, "my bad freak."

I squint my eyes against the light like it's direct sunlight.

Jerk.

I go back down the hall and pick up my glasses.

They're broken.
Perfect.

I throw them away and continue to my next class, eyes burning.

"Hey Mrs. Claire?" I asks walking up to her desk, "could we turn off the back lights?"

She looks up at me and gives me a small understanding smile.

"Sure sweetie," she nods before turning back to her computer.

"Thank you."

I go to the switches and turn off the lights in the back. Its still gonna be a bit to bright for me, but I can live with it. I make my way to the back and take a seat.

More kids file in, some quiet, some routey, and take their seats.

"Why's it so dark in here?" The junior from earlier asks, knowing exactly why. He flicks the switch on and I wince at the brightness, "much better."

He laughs with his friends.

"Turn them off, Mr. Markson," Mrs. Claire says sternly.

"Oh come on, it was just a joke," he turns them off anyways and goes to his seat and mutters to the people around him, "I still don't get why the freak has to be here in the first place."

I ignore him as Mrs. Claire starts class, going over human biology.

We're going over DNA, rNA and gene structure.

We get through half the class before I start getting looks. Mrs. Claire has brought up mutations in DNA.

"These mutations can cause changes in physical traits, or on the outer appearance, or internally, changing some form of make up in the body," she turns to us, "Miss Brock, may I use you as an example?"

I give her a nod as heads turn to me.

"Miss Brock's mutation causes both types of changes," she explains, "it causes her eyes to be continuously dilated, a physical appearance, and it causes her to take in more light, causing hypersensitivity and the ability to see in the dark, an internal change. So where we would be stumbling around in a dark cave, she could walk through it like she could the halls of the school with ease."

A girl in the front row raises her hand.

"Yes, Miss Turner?"

She turns to me.

She has short blonde hair and bright blue eyes.

"Is that why you always wear the sunglasses?" She asks.

"Yeah," I say quietly, "the lights hurt my eyes."

She nods and turns back around.

The class continues and comes to an end, also ending the school day.

I go outside and look for my dad. He's standing across the street, leaning against a tree, waiting for me.

I look both ways then cross the street to him.

"Hey Marsbars, where's your glasses?" He pulls me in for a hug and kisses the top of my head.

"They broke," I shrug.

"Again?"

I nod as he reaches into his bag and pulls out a new pair for me.

"Thanks," I put them on, "can we get tater tots?"

He chuckles and drapes his arm over my shoulder.

"Yeah," he pulls me close, "let's go get tater tots."

We go to Mrs. Cho's convenience store.

"Hey Eddie, hey Marley, hey Venom," she says as we walk in.

"Hey Mrs. Cho," bad and I say.

"Hello Mrs. Cho," Venom pops his head out from dad, "we need tater tots and chocolate."

"You know where they are," she says.

We head back to the freezers and grab a few bags of tater tots.

"How was school?" Venom asks me as we head up to get the chocolate.

"It was fine," I shrug, "we went over DNA and mutations in human biology."

"Oh," dad says, his tone says he doesn't like it, "how did that go?"

"It went okay I guess," I get a handful of Mars chocolate bars, "I got a few looks and a girl asked about my glasses but other than that it was fine."

"Are people making fun of you again?" Venom asks.

I don't answer that one and dad puts a hand on my shoulder to stop me from walking.

"Marsbars," he says gently, "are kids making fun of you again?"

"I'm fine, Dad."

"That's not what I asked," he gives me the 'im your dad so start talking' look.

"It's just the typical picking fun," I shrug his hand off.

He huffs a sigh.

"I'm sorry kiddo," he says finally as we go to check out.

"So can I bite off their heads or no?"

Dad and I both laugh as Venom looks between the two of us.

"No V," I chuckle, "I'm fine."

"Damn it."

"Language, V," dad gruffs.

"Sorry."

I laugh again.

He only does that when I'm around, not wanting me to pick up on cursing, but I think it's an inevitably with the pair of them. I'm going to end up picking upon it sooner later.

VENOMOUS