How to ask a girl out?

Manipulation and relationships should never be mentioned in the same breath.

How can a relationship work without manipulation going on? Maybe the connotation is wrong, but all of our behaviors manipulate the surroundings in some way.

I highly doubt your negative attitude here is helping with his situation.

What negative attitude? If you're only posting this to display your attitudes towards me, this is not the place to do it, the Pits of Hell is a more appropriate forum to rant.

Pretty much the best thing to do is to talk to her, hang out with her, try to be around her. Don't stress it too much, just let things happen naturally. If you dwell on it too much, it shows, and it creeps people out. Just be yourself, relax, and things will either fall into place or they won't. If they don't, just move on - it's hard, I know, but continued attempts at someone who has made it clear that they don't want to be with you will only push you farther away from them.

That's not very good advice. Things don't happen on their own, as I had mentioned earlier, following this method is the equivalent of leaving everything to chance. Also, the latter part on moving on has already been mentioned.

Anyways, Harrison is right about one thing, confidence is key. However, confidence doesn't mean being full of yourself, nor does it mean being a prick. There is a fine line, don't cross it, or you just look like another pimento in a sea of assholes.

I never talked about being a prick or an pimento. I merely said that should Johnny support his decision to court the girl, rather than shy away in order to conform to the norm of his school (which apparently is "stay away from the opposite gender"), then he will seem like a much more confident person, which is a bonus.

Truly people who can't accept who you are and what you believe in are the pricks.

As for whether other people look at you in a negative light because of this, ignore it. That's the best advice I can give. People will always be judgmental, it's in their nature. To me, if I don't respect someone, their opinion has little to no bearing on me. Once someone earns my respect, their opinion counts.

So you're saying that even if someone has the best decision that anyone ever designed, you're going to just toss it away only because THAT particular person made it?

I'm not saying that my ideas are the best, but why should you let something as trivial as this soil your perceptions?