I love your point about her pushing people away -- yet also eventually forming ties, of a sort anyway, with some pretty unpleasant people. Maybe that satisfies some balance in her head of not being totally alone, but not ever getting her hopes up too high, either?

(Now that you've gotten me thinking it, I definitely showed some Eleanor-like behavior in school, too, despite being more Chidi-like in general. I just had so little idea of how to interact with the other kids that it felt safer to refuse to even try, you know?)