shadow, my advice (and take it with a grain of salt or so) is to continue the way your going and stop caring about popularity or friends. I am not saying that you shouldn't have any, but rather that most of the people you meet in high school are not 1)friend-worthy or 2)interesting. If you see someone engaged in an activity that you enjoy, start up a conversation - otherwise focus on personal development. If you're not liked in school, go hit the library or a few of the better teachers when you have time. If you check out [interesting] books, the librarians might start up a conversation or so (I still am friends with one of my HS librarians) and some of the teachers enjoy a well thought-out argument (spent a lot of time with my pol. sci teacher arguing about security post 9-11). Other than that, get a few books and start studying things that you like. If you show knowledge about the subjects in class, you can usually get away with non-class material presuming that it is semi-relevant (or the teacher is lax). Most of my high school peers know me only because I knew most of the material and 1)questioned the teacher in class or 2)they asked me for help.