I suppose there were different types of people in our high school too, but we didn't have names for the cliques. You didn't have to be on the football or basketball team in order to date a cheerleader, although I suppose that helped. I didn't feel uncomfortable around any of the kids who played sports, at least not for that reason, and I think they tended to hang out together mostly because so much of their time was taken up with practices and games. There were people who I considered losers, but there were probably others who thought that I was a loser. Probably, the only group that I didn't see much of were the ones that I considered the "Ag students." They were the ones who took Plant and Animal Science instead of Biology, and a lower-level math class rather than Algebra, and so on. They were the 4-H and FFA members and, although some of them also played sports, I rarely saw them because we were never in any of the same classes. My cousins, who were my friends in elementary school, were in that group, so we didn't see one another often after we started high school. They weren't stupid; they just knew they didn't want to go to college.
I was very much involved in the AG and FFA classes I had horses which all the time people were wanting to go riding, I weeded out those whom were just wishing to use me for this and for the most part settled with one, we rode, shot, fished, camped, hunted and showed animals together many years.
Don't misunderstand. I wish I had taken some of the Ag classes but that wasn't where I was at that time. We had twenty-one horses at one time and I hardly paid any attention to them, except that I had to feed them in the morning.
I was the class clown and very popular until my mother died when I was in 9th grade. After that, I withdrew and kept busy doing other things. I dated very little until the head of the high school drill team (flags and all that) pursued me and persuaded me to emerge from my shell. We dated until the end of sophomore year in college, when we went our separate ways, but we are still friends and correspond at Christmas. We are very different people now, but both married for more than 4 decades to the same person. However, I have six children and she has only cats.
Going to a boarding school during your formative years can do that to you. I guess I am still rather introvert.. certainly not extrovert.