He was only meant to be the outsider for a couple of episodes. That was the point. Then it was supposed to show his transition into the world of basket ball and the "popular" kids. Atleast thats how I always saw it.

He was an outsider from part of his family and the popular crowd, but thats about it. He had plenty of friends and a sense of who he was, but by getting to know his brother opened up his world as it did for Nathan.

someone,but not all:)

I never got how people see Lucas as the "lonely" boy since he really wasn't. He actually had lots of friends lol

It fit exactly how it was supposed to, he wasn't meant to always be that way. It was meant to take place over the course of the first few episodes while he worked his way into 'Nathan's World'. You know the world of popular people that play sports etc(like nathan, brooke and peyton) yes luke had friends, but that wasn't the point, the point was to show his transition into the life of one of the popular kids, having a few friends(basically, haley, mouth, jimmy, fergie and junk) isn't exactly popular, so yes we are to understand that outside of these people luke didn't have other friends and he was no where near popular, so he was in fact an outsider, however this wasn't meant to last the entire season, it took a few episodes to watch him transition into the the 'popular' crowd, ie nathan's world, which was the entire point!