Yeah.... one thing you need when approaching a girl is confidence.
I really mean this. If you walk up to a girl, even if everybody in school has told you that this girl likes you and she's just waiting on you to ask her out, and you approach nervously, she's gonna realize this and her IL will drop immensely.
I've had this problem before. In situations like this, I've literally puffed my chest out, stood tall, grabbed my balls, and approached. If you sit there and try to talk yourself into it, you're gonna fail. Just do it!
really need to get to know her name b.c dont want to just be in the hall and be like hey
Yes you could. You could literally walk up to her and say "hey". Like I said before, you could talk to her about absolutely anything as long as the context fits. What I mean is, you can't go up to her talking about a species of birds you saw on tv yesterday that's starting to become extinct because she won't have any idea what the hell you're talking about and will wonder why you're telling her this crap. Things involved with the two of you are different. School, after school hangouts, plans for college, the cool new snack that doesn't require a spoon to eat during lunch.