School is terrible for me

Over the last few years, high school has gotten so much worse. Before it felt like I could choose who to be friends with but now I feel completely trapped in who I am and who I hang out with. I’m not sure how social areas work when you’re older, but I find friendships at school so superficial, where people will actively look down on you if you don’t have as many friends or have different interests. I want to make more friends with people and branch out but it’s completely exhausting. Most things I say are a joke to people and I just feel like a background character. I don’t know if this is the right subreddit for this subject, or if I have explained my problem clearly, but if you need any clarification or have some help please comment.