“Frankly,” she said, stuffing the crumpled remains of my work into her designer tote bag, “I’m not sure your class is a good fit here.”
That condescending little smirk was the final straw.
Management wouldn’t help, telling me my rival brought in too much money to be disciplined over a few pieces of paper. A weaker person would have walked away.
But she had no idea that her petty vandalism was about to get a major upgrade, one that involved a locked glass case, a hidden camera, and a high-resolution public shaming that would become her permanent legacy at the center.
The Ghost of the Corkboard: The First Batch
The stack of flyers felt heavy with hope, each sheet a crisp promise. I ran my thumb over the clean lines of the logo I’d designed myself: a simple, elegant tree with roots forming the base of a kettlebell. Foundational Strength with Jo. It sounded solid. It sounded like something I, at forty-eight, would want to take. Something for bodies that had lived a little, that didn’t need to be punished with burpees to feel strong.
My son, Leo, had helped with the layout. “Less is more, Mom,” he’d advised over FaceTime from his dorm room, expertly guiding me through Canva. “Clean font. Good photo. Let the vibe speak for itself.” The vibe was supposed to be welcoming, a stark contrast to the aggressive, “SHRED-BURN-DESTROY” ethos that dominated most of the fitness world.
The Pinewood Community Center was the perfect place to launch. It smelled of chlorine, floor wax, and the faint, sweet scent of the senior center’s bake sale. It was real. I chose my spot on the main corkboard in the lobby, a sprawling battlefield of notices for pottery classes, lost cats, and pleas for a reliable babysitter. I carefully thumb-tacked my first flyer, making sure the corners were perfectly square. Then another, and another, creating a neat little block of five. My little corner of possibility.
As I stepped back to admire my work, a woman with a platinum blonde ponytail pulled so tight it seemed to stretch her face stopped beside me. Her workout gear was immaculate, a coordinated set of electric blue that screamed expense. She scanned my flyer, her lips pursed into a thin, unimpressed line.
“Low-impact,” she read aloud, the words tasting like something foul in her mouth. She glanced at me, her eyes doing a quick, dismissive up-and-down. “For beginners, I assume?”
“For everyone who wants to build strength without jarring their joints,” I said, keeping my tone bright. “I’m Jo, by the way.”
“Carol,” she said, not offering a hand. She gestured with a sharp chin toward her own flyers, a chaotic collage of neon green and black featuring a photo of her holding a massive tire over her head. “I teach Core Shred. We focus on results.” She gave my flyer one last look of pity before striding away, her sneakers squeaking with purpose on the linoleum. I watched her go, a weird little knot tightening in my stomach.
Vanishing Act
The next morning, I came in early, buzzing with a nervous energy. I’d brought my own yoga mat, a brand-new water bottle, and a carefully curated playlist of 80s rock anthems. My first class wasn’t for another week, but I wanted to get the feel of the studio, to own the space.
On my way in, I glanced at the bulletin board. And stopped.
My neat little block of five flyers was gone. Not one, not two. All of them. The space was completely bare, a tan cork desert punctuated by the holes my thumbtacks had left behind. My heart did a funny little dip-and-lurch. It was probably nothing. The night janitor, maybe, being overzealous. The board was cluttered. Maybe there was a new policy about how long things could stay up.
I tried to shake it off, but the empty space stared back at me, a silent accusation. My little corner of possibility, erased.
I went home after my workout, the wind knocked out of my sails. “They were just gone,” I told my husband, Mark, as he loaded the dishwasher. “Every single one.”
“Probably just cleared the board, Jo. Don’t overthink it,” he said, his voice muffled as he reached for a stray fork. “Just print more. Print a hundred. Paper the whole damn place.”
He was right. It was silly to get worked up over a few pieces of paper. So I did just that. I went back to the print shop, the smell of toner and fresh paper doing little to soothe my nerves this time. I bought heavier cardstock, thinking it would feel more permanent, more substantial. I even bought a box of heavy-duty, brightly colored tacks. The kind that dig in deep.
That afternoon, I returned to the center and staked my claim again. I placed ten flyers this time, pressing each tack in with a firm, decisive push of my thumb. They looked professional. Unignorable. There, I thought. Let them try to clear that.
A Pattern Emerges
I gave it less than a day. I couldn’t help myself. I swung by the center on my way home from the grocery store, a pint of Ben & Jerry’s melting in a bag on the passenger seat. I told myself I was just going to check the class schedule. A total lie. My eyes went straight to the board.
The empty space screamed at me again. My ten flyers, the heavy cardstock, the defiant, colorful tacks—all gone. It was like they had never been there. My stomach went cold. This wasn’t a janitor. This was targeted.
And then I saw it. In the exact rectangle of cork where my flyers had been, a fresh batch of neon green and black had appeared. Carol’s “Core Shred” flyers, with the tire and the strained, triumphant grimace, now occupied my real estate. They weren’t just tacked up; they were layered, fanned out like a winning hand of cards, taking up more space than was necessary. It was an occupation.
A hot flush of anger crept up my neck. This was a direct, hostile act. She saw my class, my potential students, as an infringement on her territory. The community center suddenly felt less like a community and more like a high school cafeteria, with turf wars fought over corkboard and cardstock.
I took a picture with my phone. The bare space from yesterday, the aggressive takeover today. It felt flimsy, like tattling, but I needed proof that I wasn’t going crazy. The sheer pettiness of it was what stunned me. We were grown women, professionals. This felt like something a teenager would do.
I backed away from the board, my mind racing. She hadn’t just taken my flyers down. She had waited, watched, and then deliberately, insolently, replaced them. This wasn’t about a cluttered board. This was a message. And the message was clear: You don’t belong here.
A Word with Management
Armed with the pictures on my phone and a full head of righteous steam, I marched to the director’s office. Mr. Henderson was a man who looked perpetually overwhelmed, a sea of paperwork threatening to drown his small desk. He peered at me over his bifocals, his expression already tired.
“Mr. Henderson,” I began, trying to keep my voice even. “I’m Jo, I’m starting the new Foundational Strength class. We’ve spoken on email.”
“Right, right. Low-impact,” he said, nodding slowly. “Good to have some variety. How can I help?”
I showed him the photos. “My flyers. I’ve put them up twice now, and they keep disappearing. The first time, I thought it was a mistake. But this morning, they were gone again, and another instructor’s flyers were in their place.”
He squinted at the phone screen, then leaned back in his squeaky chair and sighed, a long, weary exhalation that told me everything I needed to know. “Jo, it’s a public board. Things get moved around, taken down. It’s the wild west out there.”
“But this feels deliberate,” I insisted, my frustration mounting. “Someone is removing them to promote their own class.”
“Do you have proof of that?” he asked, his tone shifting from tired to wary. “Did you see someone do it?”
“No, but—”
“Look,” he cut me off, holding up a hand. “Carol—I’m assuming you mean Carol—is one of our most popular instructors. She brings in a lot of revenue. Her classes are always full.” He gestured vaguely toward the lobby. “It’s a bulletin board. There are no assigned spots. If your flyers are gone, the only solution I can offer is that you put more up. Maybe try taping them instead of tacking?”
The suggestion was so unhelpful, so dismissive, it momentarily stunned me into silence. He was telling me to accept it. To keep spending my own money on printing costs, only to have them torn down by a territorial rival, because she was more profitable to him. The system wasn’t just failing me; it was actively protecting the person sabotaging me.
“So, that’s it?” I asked, my voice dangerously quiet. “I’m just supposed to let her tear down my property?”
“It’s paper, Jo,” he said, his patience clearly gone. “Just put more up.” He turned back to his computer, a clear dismissal. I stood there for a moment, invisible in his office, feeling the rage solidify into a cold, hard resolve. Fine. If the system wouldn’t help me, I would have to work outside of it.
Whispers and White Lies: The Stakeout
The next day, I came prepared. I had a new flyer, just one, printed on the shiniest, most obnoxious paper I could find—a pearlescent cardstock that caught the light. In the bottom right corner, almost lost in the design, I made a tiny tear in the shape of a V. My mark.
I walked into the lobby like I owned the place, a fake-it-till-you-make-it swagger in my step. I tacked the flyer right in the middle of the board, a defiant island in the sea of Core Shred green. I made a show of smoothing it down, then took a call on my cell, laughing a little too loudly as I walked toward the exit.
But I didn’t leave.
I ducked into the alcove by the vending machines, a spot that gave me a clear, if slightly obscured, view of the lobby. My heart hammered against my ribs. I felt ridiculous, like a spy in a B-movie, hiding behind a machine that dispensed stale Sun Chips. But I had to know.
Minutes stretched into an eternity. People came and went. A mom wrangled two toddlers. A group of seniors shuffled past on their way to water aerobics. Then, I saw her. Carol. She strode in from the gym, a towel draped around her neck, that platinum ponytail swinging like a metronome.
She didn’t go to the locker room. She didn’t go to the front desk. She made a beeline for the bulletin board. My breath caught in my throat. This was it. She stood there, hands on her hips, her head tilted as she surveyed the board. Her eyes, I knew, were locked on my shiny, pearlescent flyer. She took a step closer.
The Near Miss
My phone was in my hand, my thumb hovering over the camera icon. I was ready.
Carol reached out a hand, her fingers with their perfectly manicured nails heading straight for my flyer. She was going to do it. Right here, right now. My pulse thrummed in my ears. Just a little closer.
“Carol! Hey!”
A man in a staff polo shirt called out from the front desk. Carol’s hand froze, hovering an inch from the paper. She snapped it back to her side, a practiced, pleasant smile instantly appearing on her face.
“Greg! Just admiring the board,” she called back, her voice syrupy sweet. “Keeping things tidy.”
She lingered for another moment, pretending to adjust one of her own flyers, her back rigid. She was aware of the eyes on her now. The opportunity was lost. With a final, proprietary pat of her own neon propaganda, she turned and walked away, disappearing into the women’s locker room.
I sagged against the vending machine, letting out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. Defeat and relief warred within me. I had no proof. She hadn’t touched it. My marked flyer was still there, shimmering under the fluorescent lights, untouched.
But I had seen her. I saw the intent in her posture, the way her body moved with a singular, predatory purpose toward my flyer. I didn’t have proof that would stand up with Henderson, but I had proof enough for me. She was guilty. And now, she was on notice. She knew I was watching. The game had changed.
The Ally in Maintenance
I found Gary in the staff breakroom, nursing a cup of coffee that looked thick enough to stand a spoon in. Gary was the head of maintenance, a man whose weary eyes and permanent five-o’clock shadow suggested he’d seen every petty drama the center had to offer.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he grunted, not looking up from his crossword puzzle.
“Worse,” I said, slumping into the chair opposite him. “I’ve seen Carol.”
That got his attention. He lowered his paper, a flicker of something—amusement? recognition?—in his eyes. “Ah. The Queen of Corkboard.”
The name was so perfect I almost laughed. “You know about it?”
“Everyone knows,” he said, taking a slow sip of his coffee. “She calls it ‘curating.’ Thinks any class that doesn’t involve screaming and a high probability of a hernia is a ‘safety risk.’ She’s complained to Henderson about a dozen times. Yoga’s too woo-woo, Zumba’s too frantic, senior’s chair aerobics isn’t ‘functional.'”
It all clicked into place. This wasn’t just about competition. In her twisted view, she was a gatekeeper, a self-appointed guardian of the center’s fitness integrity. My low-impact class wasn’t just a threat to her bottom line; it was an affront to her entire philosophy.
“Henderson won’t do anything,” I said, the bitterness rising in my throat. “He told me to just put more up.”
Gary snorted. “Henderson’s playbook has one move: ignore it until it goes away. He’s not gonna cross his biggest moneymaker over a few flyers.” He tapped his pen on the table, thoughtful. “The problem is that board. It’s just old cork and plywood. Anybody can stick anything in it, or pull anything out. No accountability.”
He leaned forward, his voice dropping conspiratorially. “You know, the preschool wing has one of those fancy boards. Glass doors, with a lock. For ‘official notices only.’ Keeps the parents from posting ads for their pyramid schemes.”
An idea, cold and brilliant, began to form in my mind. A lock. Accountability. Gary had just handed me a key.
The Test
Before I went all-in on my new, half-formed plan, I needed one last piece of confirmation. I had to be absolutely certain.
That afternoon, I posted a single flyer. Not on the main board. I tucked it away on a smaller, secondary board down the hall near the pool, a sad little space usually reserved for swim lesson schedules and lost-goggle notices. It was well out of Carol’s usual territory. If this one disappeared, it would prove her campaign was not just opportunistic but a systematic effort to erase me completely.
Later, in the locker room, a woman approached me as I was packing my bag. She was in her fifties, with kind eyes and a slight limp.
“Excuse me,” she said softly. “Are you the one starting that new strength class? The low-impact one?”
“I am!” I said, my heart lifting. “I’m Jo.”
“Brenda. I saw your flyer the other day and I was so excited. I have a bad knee, and all the other classes are just too much. I went to grab the little tear-off tab with the schedule, and the whole thing was gone. I was so disappointed.”
Here it was. The real-world consequence of Carol’s petty sabotage. It wasn’t just paper. It was a potential student, a person who needed my class, who was being denied access because of Carol’s ego. The rage, which had been simmering, now came to a rolling boil.
“I’m so sorry, Brenda,” I said, pulling a fresh flyer from my bag and handing it to her. “Here’s all the information. The class is definitely happening. I promise.”
Her face lit up. “Oh, wonderful! I’ll be there.”
Her genuine excitement solidified my resolve. This wasn’t just about me anymore. It was about Brenda, and all the other Brendas who were being shut out.
The next morning, I walked straight to the pool hallway. The space where my flyer had been was empty. Of course it was. She had hunted it down. The test was complete. Carol wasn’t just weeding her garden; she was salting the earth. And I was done playing by her rules.
The Smirk that Launched a Thousand Tacks: The Confrontation
I spent the rest of the morning at the print shop. I didn’t just print a few flyers. I printed a hundred. I took the thickest, glossiest cardstock they had. When the clerk handed me the warm, heavy stack, it felt like an arsenal.
Back at the center, I walked to the main bulletin board, my steps ringing with purpose. Carol’s neon green flyers were still there, a smug, occupying force. I didn’t take them down. That would make me just like her. Instead, I worked around them. I carefully, methodically, pinned up twenty of my new flyers, creating a bold, unmissable border around her territory. I used four tacks for each one, hammered in with the palm of my hand. It was a declaration of war.
Then, I executed the second part of my plan. I didn’t go to the vending machines this time. I walked down the hall, past the turn for the gymnasium, and slipped into the men’s locker room entryway. It was empty, and the angle gave me a perfect, unobstructed view of the bulletin board. I pulled out my phone, propped it on a ledge, and hit record. My heart was a frantic drum against my ribs. It was a long shot, but I had a feeling my new, aggressive poster campaign would be too much for her to ignore.
I didn’t have to wait long. Not five minutes later, Carol came storming out of the gym. She wasn’t even trying to be subtle. She saw my flyers, and her face contorted into a mask of pure fury. She marched to the board, looked left, then right, and seeing the lobby empty, she began her work.
Rip. The sound of tearing cardstock was shockingly loud in the quiet hall. Rip. Rip. She worked with a vicious efficiency, yanking my beautiful, glossy flyers off the board, not even bothering with the tacks, leaving shredded paper bits clinging to the cork.
I stepped out from the entryway.
My voice was quiet, but it cut through the air like a razor. “Excuse me.”
“Just Housekeeping”
She froze, her hand still holding a mangled corner of my flyer. For a split second, I saw pure, unadulterated panic in her eyes. It was gone as quickly as it came, replaced by a shield of condescending calm. She turned to face me, slowly.
A tight, unpleasant smile stretched across her lips. It didn’t reach her eyes. “Oh, hello, Jo,” she said, her voice dripping with false cheerfulness. “Just doing a bit of housekeeping. This board gets so cluttered, you know. It’s important to maintain a certain standard for the center.”
She wasn’t even going to deny it. She was going to stand there, red-handed, and dress her sabotage up as civic duty. The sheer audacity of it stole my breath.
She began stuffing the crumpled remains of my work into the oversized Lululemon tote bag hanging from her shoulder. “Frankly,” she continued, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, as if she were doing me a favor, “I’m not sure your class is a good fit here. ‘Foundational Strength’… it sounds a bit unstructured. A bit of a liability, if you ask me. We have a reputation to protect. People come here for serious fitness.”
That was it. That was the line. The rage that had been a low hum inside me for days erupted into a silent, white-hot inferno. She wasn’t just a petty competitor. She was a bully, cloaking her insecurity in a shroud of elitist nonsense. She was invalidating my profession, my knowledge, and my potential students, all while destroying my property with a smug little smirk on her face.
I didn’t say a word. I just stood there and let her finish, committing every detail of this moment to memory: the way she shoved the last flyer into her bag, the condescending tilt of her head, the triumphant glint in her eyes. She thought she had won. She thought her little speech had put me in my place.
“Well,” she said, zipping her tote with a flourish. “Have a great day.” She brushed past me, her shoulder bumping mine, and strode off toward the parking lot, the victor leaving the battlefield.
I stood there, shaking, my phone still recording in the hallway behind me. I had her.
The Seed of a Plan
I drove home in a daze, the scene replaying in my mind on a loop. The smirk. “Just housekeeping.” The condescending lecture. By the time I walked in the door, I was vibrating with a fury so intense it felt like a physical illness.
Mark took one look at my face and steered me to the couch. “Who do I have to kill?” he asked, only half-joking.
I told him everything. I played him the video, the camera angle catching the whole sordid affair perfectly. His face darkened as he watched. “That’s it,” he said, grabbing his keys. “We’re going to Henderson. Right now. This is undeniable.”
“And say what?” I shot back, the words tumbling out. “Henderson will give her a slap on the wrist. He’ll tell her not to do it again. She’ll find another way. She’ll start bad-mouthing my class to people, telling them it’s unsafe. He’s not going to fire his star instructor over this. It’ll be my word, and this video, against her revenue. Guess who wins?”
I was pacing now, the anger needing a physical outlet. “Reporting her isn’t enough. A private little scolding from Henderson won’t fix this. She needs to understand that what she did has consequences. Real, public consequences.”
Mark watched me, his expression shifting from anger to concern. “What are you thinking, Jo?”
The idea that had been planted by Gary, the maintenance guy, bloomed in my mind, now fed by the rich fertilizer of my rage. It wasn’t just about stopping her. It was about creating a system where she couldn’t operate. It was about taking away her power. And it was about making sure everyone knew exactly who she was.
“I’m thinking about an upgrade,” I said, a slow, cold smile spreading across my face. “A bulletin board upgrade.” The pettiness of her crime deserved an equally petty, but far more permanent, form of justice. It wasn’t about reporting her to the boss. It was about showing the entire community who their star instructor really was.
About the Author
