Dating amateur needs some hardcore advice!! ;)

hey everyone~ i'm new to this forum. i've read a few threads and you ppl seem to give some great advice! :) i think i'd really need some for this particular situation i'm in...

i've recently started a new school and i've noticed this guy who's totally my type: tall, good-lucking, funny, outgoing. i can tell he notices me as well, but sometimes i'm not sure. like for example, we can have a lot of eye contact in one day, but the next he can pay not much attention to me. on the rare occassion that we get to talk, i can tell he pays more attention to me though. (btw, this is one of the biggest problems: we do everything in groups and i'm not in *any* one of his :'( so it's pretty hard to get to know him better). also i know that noticing doesn't necessarily convey interest right? it could just mean that he thinks i'm pretty/interesting or something. i mean i'd *like* to think he just might be interested too but i find that when you're interested in someone, you're more likely to interpret their response to you as them being interested. i really don't know what to think. i'd really appreciate it if a guy could interpret this behaviour lol (if a girl looks at you a lot what would you think??).

also i have an idea but i dunno if it's a good one. since i dont really have much contact with him in school, i thought maybe i could organize an outing with a large group of ppl. i was thinking of a night out drinking/clubbing to get everyone relaxed so i could get to know him better. the problem with that though is that i'm studying something where most ppl are really studious and not the drinking type. what's more, we've all only known each other for a few weeks so it might be a lil awkward if ppl don't turn up and there's only a few of us, but i really can't think of a better idea.

i've considered just making a point of going up to him just to talk/flirt with him loads everytime so he gets the point, but it's difficult for me to know where to draw the line between achieving that, and looking desparate (which is the last thing i wanna do!). are there any particular topics which are good for starting a conversation considering how well we know each other? how often do you guys suggest i do that without looking desparate, and how far do i have to go so he knows i'm interested?? i'm not the best conversationalist and i'm shy (but that's something i'm really aiming to change!!) *any advice is much appreciated as i'm pretty clueless* !!

thnx soooo much for reading!! =)