Cody Archer

Cody Archer
Sex	M
Birth date	1991
Father	John Archer
Mother	Candice Archer

Cody Archer is the youngest son of John and Candice (Howard) Archer. He was born in 1991, when the Archers were living in an apartment in Camden. He frequently follows his older brother Shay's lead. After moving to Spearfish Lake, both boys join Little League, coached by Terry Curtis, assisted by their dad.

The 1991 birth date can be inferred from Facing the Storm; it's stated that he's two years younger than Shay, and Shay is in fifth grade in late 1999-early 2000, so Cody is probably in third grade, thus about eight. In Stray Kitten no year is given and no exact birthday is given for Cody, but his birthday is implied to be in the early part of the year; he's 17 when the story begins in December, and turns eighteen sometime before chapter 27, before the end of the school year.

Starting at age 13 Cody took up target shooting and became very, very good at it. In December 2007 he was forced to kill the father and brother of his school lab partner Janice Lufkin when rescuing her from their physical and sexual abuse.^SK1

Cody was trained by Chief Charlie Wexler and Gil Evachevski on such things as Police procedures and in Self Defense martial arts. He and Janice attended House of Mayhem practice. In Chapter 32 of Stray Kitten he wins the state heavy pistol championship. In Chapter 7 of Hiding Patty it is implicitly mentioned that he won the state heavy pistol championship for the second time.

In the summer of 2010, Cody helped Janice Archer give first aid to Howie Erikson after his encounter with Frenchy LeDroit. He had been a paperboy for the Archers when he was younger.^BITH20 His later stand behind Howie's brother Jack Erikson against Frenchy caused Frenchy to back down.^BITH25

In the last chapter of Stray Kitten he is a fully certified Michigan police officer. When he was in Spearfish Lake he worked some shifts as a part time police officer for Chief Charlie Wexler.^BOF15 He was one of many officers called in to break up the football team pre-practice beer party in August 2010.^BOF18 Having apprehended four teens he probably had the highest individual count for the night.^BOF21

He encouraged Jack Erikson, Vixen Hvalchek, Alan Jahnke and Summer Trevetheck to think about going to Southern Michigan University.^BOF15

Cody and Jan became friends with Frenchy LeDroit and Monica Laughton after Frenchy had protected Monica from Lonnie Iffland.^{OC22 OC26}

Because Southern Michigan University didn't have its own security force, Chief Bascomb asked Cody Archer to spend some time on campus in uniform to get known as an officer, and to carry his badge, ID a radio and be armed when not in uniform. He temporarily sold Cody a small hideout pistol.^SLH14 He had the expected discussion with Dr. Thompson one Saturday afternoon and managed not to turn it into a confrontation.^SLH20

He was first to respond to a call of attempted rape in one of the dorms.^SLH22

He was on campus on Activity Day and heard Kyle Reed's first shots and had to fight through the crowd running away. Cody shot Reed when he turned his gun towards him.^SLH27

He joined Jan Archer attempting to limit Elise Simpkins blood loss while waiting for ambulance crews.^SLH28

He was accepted to the Notre Dame law school with his tuition fully paid by donations and scholarships for his part in preventing any deaths from Kyle Reed's shooting spree.^SLH38

Mark Thompson included Cody with Chief Bascomb and others to develop a security plan for the college.^SLH39