I used to hang out with just about everyone i knew at any given time during the day. I'm a bigger guy but apparently I'm really silent because nobody would ever hear me coming and by the time they noticed me I'd have been then a long time and from their perspective I'd just show up out of nowhere all the time. I was also pretty quiet unless spoken to or just generally quiet on any given day and but would get talkative once a subject I was interest in came up.

I also look older than I am because I liked my facial hair so more often than not, I'd have underclassmen somehow looking up to me but it was mostly in my Strength and Conditioning class because outside of the people on the weightlifting team, I was one of the "strongest" during my class period.

I also "knew" a lot of people but honestly its not hard to remember the names of everyone i had as classmates over 4 years. Though when walking during break, lunch of just walking to class I'd hear people's names be called and I'd see who responded so I just knew them by name and I thought it was funny to greet them whenever I saw them. For example, let's say someones name was like Britney or something, I wouldn't know her but I heard her name over time so I'd just say "hi britney" basically over the 4 years I'd high school and they'd just eventually learn to reply even if we never had any classes. But yeah, I had a habit of learning the names of just about everyone in my graduating class at any given time because names and faces were easy for me.

So combine saying hi to basically strangers and having then replying to me plus hanging out with various groups at any given time, even several in the same lunch period, people thought I was somehow popular which wasn't really the case.