While Ellie attempts to do her duties to the best of her ability, she is utterly, bafflingly incompetent and her many, many, many mistakes and failures lead her to having almost no self-worth and crying quite frequently.
This extreme clumsiness has kept her from having many friends, and she is very quick to become friendly with anyone she can, including those like her teacher, who accidentally injured her but who unlike many others showed sympathy for el.