How should I structure this in my novel?

[Dusty_Female Cat]

I have a main character, Skyler, who has two psychic abilities. The first is that he can see ghosts which pretty much appear everywhere he looks. The second is his power to see a black sphere hovering inside a person’s body which indicates to him that within seven days this person will die somehow.

There is also a girl who is possessed by a spirit that makes her go out and vandalize a town every other night without her awareness. So I started the first chapter with the girl, only exposing background I felt was needed for the first chapter.

The main plot is supposed to take off when Skyler runs into the possessed girl and sees she is going to die soon so he gets involved to change that. That’s kind of what starts the main story.
I don’t know if he should meet the girl right away in the second chapter since he doesn’t appear in the first at all. This would mean explaining his ghost-seeing ability and his ability to see if someone will die which will bog down the chapter, including several important events from the past involving those abilities. At the same time I want to expose some of the ways in which he interacts with his family and his sister, for which there would be little chance, if any, to do later on.
So is it okay if I decide in Chapter 2 he and his family are hiking around Grand Canyon. While nothing happens on the hike, it briefly exposes his interaction with his sister and his ability to see ghosts and all the details surrounding that. Then his sister looks at her phone and reads on her Facebook page that most kids at school falsely think her brother is gay.

To explain that we jump into chapter 3 which is a flashback to a week earlier. The main character is walking out of class with his friend after hearing a small lecture on observing quantum mechanics by his physics teacher. (this will foreshadow the main concept of the story—quantum technology affecting the spirit world). Skyler and his friend Michelle talk a little (reveals background about Michelle) and then he sees two boys being harassed by a teacher for making out in the hallway. Skyler quickly deduces that the teacher is discriminating against them when he says making out isn’t allowed at school, but he overlooks all the straight couples making out. In one of the boys Skyler sees a mark appear that marks him for death so he steps in and gets in trouble defending the boys against a bullying teacher. After he does, the death mark disappears so Skyler concludes that maybe the gay kid was going to be upset enough by the discriminating teacher to kill himself, but then the death mark disappeared because Skyler had renewed the kid’s hope that there are good people who are willing to stand up for him and that reverses his supposed decision to end his life. This is when Skyler’s ability to see if someone is about to die is explained. This scene is important because before that he had never made the death mark disappear by intervening in the lives of those who have it and this is the first time it worked. Also, Michelle will play an important role throughout the story.

Chapter 4. This is when he sees the possessed girl will soon die and gets involved in trying to save her life and all the adventures that result from it. Eventually once they talk, he reveals greater details about his childhood and an incident where by trying to save a life, he actually caused a person to die, so he has doubts as to whether he might be saving her unconsciously driving events toward her death.

I don’t know if I should start with the events in chapter 4 and work chapters 2 and 3 in as nothing but flashbacks, or make chapters 2 and 3 as they are, otherwise there will be way too many flashbacks and all of them might mostly end up crammed only into a single chapter in the future. Also without people knowing the background information in chapters 2 and 3, I'm afraid they won't see as much significance to the way he feels in chapter 4 where his feelings are defined by certain events in the past involving his powers.

[Brenda]

The adage "start your story where the action begins" rings true for you, here. Yes, you'd like to give the background on the boy. We all want to give our readers the down low on our characters. But start with where the boy meets the possessed girl. Backtracking to show scenes that are not part of the main action will bog the story down. And don't explain his ability to see things right off. If we first meet him from the girl's point of view, that will only tell us that he's weirdly interested. The intrigue will deepen when we come to see he has more at stake than trying to help a strange girl.

Pull chapters 2 and 3 for now. No, you don't want to overload on flashbacks. You may need snippets of these, but get down to telling the story.