Edit: formatting on my phone, r/foundthemobileuser

So I am a younger dude in high school (junior, to be specific). My confidence is weird as even though I don't see myself very highly, I have no problem starting a convo with anyone tbh. I can easily socialize and am pretty extroverted when given the chance. I am working on being more mature and overall more of an ambivert as I can be so extroverted that I scare people off. As far as girls go, I have always talked with girls my whole entire life. Guys were initially not receptive of me when I was younger but there would always be girls that would play with me and from that, I just developed a sort of an understanding with them. In fact a lot of my best friends are girls.

Which brings me to the meat of this. I have had feelings for a girl since freshmen year. Perfect girl, especially in terms of personality. Really I want to date as I want an intense relationship with someone that I can open up to. Many of friends at school just don't hit me up outside of school, flake out on me when it comes to making plans or just legitimately cannot hang out due to schoolwork ( a lot of my friends are in my AP classes including the girl I'm talking about). I ask out the girl out at the end of freshmen year to a picnic and get rejected, although in a pretty nice way. Afterwards, I back the fuck off. I talked with with her in sophomore year a lot because her presence is just lovely ( weird thing: when I see her out by herself, she looks serious ad. But she lightens up when she's around me. Either she likes me or thinks of me as a child lol). But in terms of identifying where we stood I just thought we were acquaintances. Along with the rejection, she is an extremely dry texter, responding in 2 to 4 word phrases.

Last summer I make an appreciation post on my IG for all my best friends. I exclude her cause I honestly thought she did not like being around me. But she's hits me up and states that she thought we were best friends. I agree of course and feature her. But lately I've been thinking about this. Right now I'm trying to guide a female friend of mine to show interest to her crush as I know they will probably be a happy couple. But she refuses to do anymore beyond just talking with him like a friend because the thought of showing her feelings gives her complete anxiety. Maybe she actually enjoys my presence but doesn't know how to show it. She does ask me to visit her after I moved last summer.

Ultimately I want to know if it's a possibility to get out of the friend zone. I know certain things like leagues are stupid cause no one knows who is in which league, making it stupid. But a friend zone is a legitimate thing that girls from my perspective use to give distance between guys they don't like. I don't visit my old hometown where she lives cause none of our mutual friends actually adhere to making plans, although I should ask her directly probs. I just worried that she might want to keep that friend zone up from freshman year. So... Can one get themselves out of the friend zone?