How to start a conversation with a guy?

If you have something in common that you can ask about, like if you're in the same English class you could "forget what the reading assignment is" and harmlessly text and ask him, or if y'all are both in Student Council you could ask if there's a meeting next week. Or whatever. Just make it sound realistic haha. And then if he likes you, even as a friend, there's a good chance he'll keep it going.

Another thing I like to do is if I'm out and see something that reminds me of an inside joke that I have with a guy, or something we talked about recently, I'll send him a pic. Once I had a long conversation with a guy about a specific episode of "The Office," and then later that week that rerun was on TV so I sent him a picture of my tv with the episode playing with "look what I just found."

Just say hey what's going on?