How to make friends in a new high school freshmen year?

Don't have friends in high school?

• I have always had little to no friends in middle school and my high school year so far (I'm a freshman). I go to a school where everyone already knows each other and I know nobody. Well, I know their names, but that's it. They are always in conversations that I don't understand and can't really take part of. For example, at lunch conversations kind of go like... "I was playing lacrosse and ran blah blah blah scored a goal blah then Brandon passed it then blah blah blah." "Oh that reminds me about my camera that blah blah blah and Ricky was going out with blah blah blah!" I have no idea what they are talking about. I don't want to just jump into the conversation you know? I usually get a response like "Do you even know what I'm talking about... Anyways, blah blah blah." So I just sit at the lunch table alone and not take part in conversation. There is no small talk I can make (I know how to do small talk, but when they are talking it just seems impossible to have a small talk between me and them.) The same thing happens in class. Say we get into groups/partners. Everyone would talk about something they did and I have no idea who they are talking about (Even if I ask who they are talking about). So I just sit and do the group work by myself. Either that or the group works together and it is just silence. I try and talk to my partner and they give a bad response cause they don't know me. So your probably wondering... Why not join a club or a sports team? I love art and I know a lot about art. And there is an art club. I am not athletic and I do not play sports very well. The art club members are all girls (I am a boy) and all they talk about is girl stuff like where they got their haircut or their nails done or something that I can't take part in. They never talk about art. There is no members I can relate to in that club. I tried out for the basketball team (I like basketball, even though I am not good at it.) Everyone (I mean everyone) was amazing at basketball. They are like 6 feet tall and I'm like 5 feet tall. So we practiced at basketball and did drills and stuff. It was a complete embarrassment because I had horrible ball handing and kept missing wide open layups and I could not catch the ball. I feel like I don't belong anywhere. There is nobody that listens to the same music I like or enjoys art as much as I do. I talked to pretty much all the freshmen and none of them are interested in me. I tried to talk to them more than once by using small talk. That didn't work well. I am very nice to everyone but they aren't so nice to me back. How can I make high school less lonely? Sorry for such a long question. I just wanted guidance and express how I feel.

• Answer:

  Try to start your own conversation with someone. Start talking to just one specific person and get a really good relationship with them. Then you can start talking to a few other people. For a good topic, watch popular sports teams and if a player makes a really good play or makes an epic fail, talk about that. You can also talk about movies or shows you've seen.