Cedric the Centipede Makes a New Friend

Mysterious noises echoed from the kitchen floor. Squeak at first, then a squish, then a clickety-clack-clack!

Cedric the centipede was wearing his finest top hat and his biggest red polka-dot bowtie. And he was wearing all of his favorite shoes. There was nothing that he loved more than getting another pair of shoes.

He liked to take turns with his shoes to hear the different sounds. His sneakers ‘sneaked,’ which is where they got their name from. His stylish and historic high heels made a satisfying sound on the linoleum of the kitchen he was skittering across.

Cedric was in a great mood today: “I’ll grow some more and molt soon, and then I’ll have some extra legs with extra feet – for a brand-new pair of shoes,” he said to himself with a huge smile. At the moment, he only had ten pairs of legs. Which meant he could only wear ten pairs of shoes at the same time. But in his shoe collection, he had over fifty pairs. That's why he couldn't wait to grow up and wear even more shoes at once!

He strode across the kitchen merrily, expecting someone to notice his beautiful, shiny, clacking shoes.

But the humans above must not have heard his beautiful shoes making all of that racket. In fact, he saw, they didn’t even notice him as he sped by. Sometimes, they were even scared of him! Just imagine – being scared of such a fine centipede!

“I'll head outside then. I’m sure on such a nice day there will be plenty of insects to admire my shoes!” he thought.

He used his hiking boots to crawl under the door and climb down the steep steps. Then he switched to his wooden clogs to announce himself to the…