Well, the secret of why Denise was being bullied has been solved.
In Ch 6, we saw her working on her game with Girl and Bunny. We know from that game that the queen bees hurt them for being different, shown in the game as those two liking rainbow ice cream.
Bunny was obviously Denise, and Girl was the friend that got moved away by her asshole parents.
Maybe I was too slow to grab the connections then ("rainbow" ice cream, duh), but Denise's confession during the bathroom scene about kissing another girl before LomL begins makes it very clear: Denise was being bullied by homophobes because she kissed her friend at school.
And now that it's been said outright, it makes all the little clues dropped in the first six chapters make so much sense. Amazing work,
naughtyroad.
I'm so impressed by the level of care put into this to make it such a compelling story.