The ten-book series chronicles the adventures of three teen aliens and their human friends, who attend the fictional Ulysses F. Olsen High in Roswell, New Mexico.
The aliens have special powers, including the ability to: Max, Isabel, and Michael have successfully kept their true nature a secret for a decade.
Metz and her writing partner Laura J. Burns created the basic story arc for the first six books, after which several writers wrote the sample scene in which Max saves Liz's life.
When Melinda and I met, we were both editors at a book production company, which works the way a movie or a TV production company would work here–you come up with the ideas, you do the plotting, you hire the writers, and you have a deal with the publishing house, as opposed to with the network.
The publishing house would pay for the printing of the books, the distribution and advertising, that kind of thing.
After I left the company where we met, I was developing the "Roswell High" series for Pocket Books.
It was perfect for both of us.Yeah, Laura had already come up with the characters of Max and Liz, Michael and Maria, Alex and Isabel and Valenti and the arc for the first six books.
But we got to do what we used to do, which is sit around and brainstorm and figure out stuff together, which is fun.When Liz Ortecho is shot in a freak accident at the Crashdown Cafe owned by her family, her friend Max Evans leaps in to heal her without regard for the secret that he keeps about his sister Isabel, his friend Michael Guerin, and himself.
Liz keeps his secret from Sheriff Valenti and the publisher of the local tabloid, DuPris, despite their suspicions.
At the end, Liz realizes that she returns Max's love, but he pushes her away because he believes that he is endangering her by being in her life.
Michael, Alex, Isabel, Maria, and Liz help Max find the ship, which Valenti and his Project Clean Slate have.
He seems to be acting like an 8-year-old boy but in fact his power is stronger because it had been developed by the sheriff's Clean Slate Project.
A few days later, Max, Liz, Isabel, Maria, Alex, and Adam go to the compound to rescue Michael.
Max, Liz, Isabel, Alex, and Maria take Michael and his prison companion, Cameron, out of the compound.
Eventually the teens discover that the local UFO newspaper publisher is the evil stowaway that they were told crashed the ship all those years ago and that he was remote controlling Adam when Clean Slate was destroyed.
DuPris (the bad alien) has searched for 50 years for one of the three Stones of Midnight the homeworld has as a power source, and he gets the ring (containing one) the gang has.
The gang tries to send DuPris to his enemies through a wormhole, adopting his appearance as part of their efforts.
They send him through with the bounty hunters but discover that it was Alex they sent through, and the real DuPris escapes with the ring.
Michael has found that Ray (the friendly alien) left him the ownership of the museum in his will so he's got a place of his own now.
The gang investigates DuPris' office and discovers a photograph of Alex's father with Valenti showing that he's also in Clean Slate.
During their trip to the Caverns, the teens find the ship hidden in the cave and run into a chemical weapon trap set by Mr. Manes, deadly to aliens- Liz and Maria drag their friends to safety.
They have a confrontation with DuPris, discovering that Mr. Manes isn't an enemy as he saves them with more gas after being trapped in the ship with them.
DuPris teleports the ship away, and an attempt by Mr. Manes to bring Alex home using a Clean Slate device that absorbed Stone energy fails.
Michael meets a stranger outside the museum, and it turns out to be his unknown brother who slipped through with Alex.
Most of the book is spent with everyone trying to decide who should be trusted, mostly thinking that Trevor (Michael's brother) might be a danger.
Starts where #8 left us with Kyle confronting the gang and Michael's brother Trevor appearing to join up with the evil alien DuPris.
They get Maria's brother Kevin back and spend much of the rest of the book dealing with DuPris and the fact that Isabel has developed the dangerous akino condition.
Supposedly DuPris is the leader of the rebel faction wanting to destroy the consciousness with the Stones of Midnight.
Alex, Isabel, and Liz reach out to Max while trying to hide the true aim of the group from the consciousness.
Using a device they get from Kyle Valenti (who is now in a mental asylum for saying that aliens killed his father), they neutralize that Stone.