Chosen

About the Author:

Brief version:

Sarah Swan was born in the summer of 1991 on the outskirts of Seattle, Washington.  She is an avid reader and has been so since her mother placed her first book in her hands.  She has dreamt of being a writer ever since meeting J.K. Rowling in a local bookshop at the age of 12.  She wrote
Chosen
while balancing a full college schedule and waitressing part-time at a college bar.

Book Description:

Could you live your whole life feeling empty?
A New Life 
Seventeen-year-old Tracy Bachman feels that something is missing in life. Despite a normal upbringing, she can't help but yearn for more. That is why she decides to transfer to a new boarding school, in a move that takes her all the way across the country. 
An Unforgettable Adventure 
When Tracy arrives at her new school, she expects an ordinary enough life. But what she finds there instead changes her in ways she could never expect. 
A love interest she did not ask for. 
A power she does not know she holds. 
And a clique of mysterious, popular girls hell-bent on entangling Tracy in their affairs. 
A Hidden Purpose 
The girls Tracy meets all know she is different. Beneath their easy smiles lies a friendship laced with dark intentions. Will Tracy understand what they want in time to protect herself? Or will she find herself hopelessly ensnared in their web of secrets? 
A Forbidden Romance 
A suggestive glance. A secret rendezvous. In the midst of everything else, Tracy finds temptation in the very boy she is prohibited from speaking to. But as she pushes herself away, she falls right into the arms of another... 
A Mystical World 
Slowly, Tracy starts to understand that beneath her school's veneer of splendor lies a dangerous, secretive world brimming with supernatural powers. And before she knows it, she finds herself deep in the heart of that cryptic, mystifying world. 
All expectations are thrown to the wind as Tracy struggles to balance love, friendship, adventure - and her newfound power. But will she be perceptive enough to realize that there are those who would use her for that power, lurking closer than she can believe? 
--
Chosen
 is the first book of The Seeker Saga, a new YA paranormal series. Look for the second book, 
Forbidden
, to be available March 2012.

Chapter One – A New Life

September 23
^rd
is the first day of fall.  I know this not because I have some bizarre fascination with the changing of the seasons, or with watching the days of the calendar slowly creep by, but rather because this year, September 23
^rd
happened to fall on a Friday.  This is ironic to me, since that day of the week is typically reserved for marking the end of things, such as the working week, than signaling the start of something new.  But for me, September 23
^rd
marked not only the transition into a less prosperous season, when the last rays of sunshine from a glorious summer are taken away, leaving only memories of those warm, lustful days, but also the end of my previous life.

I guess, from an even more pessimistic perspective, one would be justified in saying that September 23
^rd
is also the end of the three most peaceful months of the year, a time when the entire western world shifts away from a recess of lounging and relaxing into a more high-octane way of thinking.  New stresses and pressures begin to show themselves and become painfully rediscovered.  At least, this is the way of things for adults, as I’ve come to figure out in my relatively short sixteen years on this planet. 

For a student like me, fall marks the beginning of a new school year.  This is a time of great fascination and palpable excitement – about seeing old friends, and meeting new ones, and about discovering yourself for the umpteenth time in the first semester of school.  But, this year, that beginning was slightly different for me. 

Thinking back, September 23
^rd
was more than just the start of a new season.  For me, it signified the beginning of a new life, one which would typically be thrown off as interesting and eventful only in the shallow minds of teenagers and (to be frank) the miniscule world they inhabit.  But, my story is far from typical.  While it may begin in a familiar setting, I can see now, in hindsight, that where it takes me is a place far and away outside the realm of familiarity.

But I digress.  The beginning of this story takes place in the backseat of a very cramped early 1990s Oldsmobile Bravada.  If the make of the car doesn’t ring a bell, I wouldn’t blame you – the entire line was phased out of production sometime in the mid-2000s.  But with my dad’s constant insistence that his car was just as good today as the day he bought it, only a few weeks after I was born, it was the only vehicle available to us for the cross-country trip that my family was just completing.  After spending the better part of a week squeezed between boxes of nearly all my belongings, even
my
patience was starting to wear thin.  And that’s fairly impressive, because, as you’ll soon see, I pride myself on being a very patient and tolerant person. 
I’m kidding.
  That was just a lie I made up to make myself feel better about my
im
patience at the gnawing and very distracting feeling of being restricted to nothing more than a very small, very hard backseat in this rickety ride.

“Look honey!” my mom exclaimed in her usual-but-completely-baffling cheery voice. “The sign outside says we’ve only got twenty miles to go!”  She turned around from her copilot seat up front with a wide grin on her face.  That quickly turned into a frown.  “Tracy!  How many times do I have to tell you to
stop chewing your nails
?”

Abashedly, I jerked my hand away from my mouth. 
That
was a habit I had been meaning to break for, oh, over two years now.  I was actually feeling proud of myself for not succumbing to the temptation even once on this long road trip.  But I guess it had become so ingrained that I sometimes did it without thinking.  I resolved right there and then that this would be the absolute
last
time I allowed myself to do that.  What better time, really, than the day before joining an entirely new school?

“Sorry,” I replied cheekily, “I guess my mind just wandered.”

My mom waved me away.  “It’s for your own good, you know.  There aren’t many boys who will like a chomper.”

“Mom!” I exclaimed, feeling unusually embarrassed.  “Can we not talk about
that
?  Not right now?”

“I’m just saying…” my mom replied, turning back around.  “Isn’t that right, Dave?”

Dave
, of course, was my father, who snuck a surreptitious wink at me when mom wasn’t looking.  “Of course, dear,” he replied with only the barest hint of sarcasm.  “Although, I have a feeling that Tracy’s going to do just fine with the boys no matter what her habits are.”  I smiled to myself.  Dad always had a very inflated opinion of his one and only daughter.  If he knew just how much of a struggle it was for me to be able to say two coherent words to a boy that I liked, well…
shell-shocked
wouldn’t be too strong of a word.  Still, he always had a way of making me feel better every time I came home after school with any type of problem, big or small.  That would be one thing I would definitely miss at my new home.

I shook my head.  It was strange thinking of this place I was going to, this seemingly otherworldly institute located far from my Washington home as could possibly be, as, well,
home
.  But that faraway place would be home for the next two years of my life.  I was headed for a very small, very
prestigious,
private school, located on a small island just off the coast of Maine.  I emphasize the word
prestigious
because, while it is not something I would ever use, it is what nearly everybody else said about the place when they found out I had been accepted.