In before lock, I'd share my experiences.
Basically, becoming friends first helps greatly. All the girls who I've gotten to around this stage said that they want to remain friends if/(most likely)when we break up, and with my one ex, that's gone (mostly) well. However, sometimes it'll just happen with say, a random girl that you happen to meet in a class or whatever. Like, with me, the current thing I've got going on happened quite by chance. First day of school, in math class, the teacher seats me behind a girl who I've known existed since like 6th grade but never talked to. Since she's the only girl near me, I invariably start talking to her. Something clicks, and six weeks later we're together, despite the protests of her friends and almost the rest of our grade (i'm not too popular. go figure).
So basically, it just happened, and nobody saw it coming. You just have to let things go the way they're going, and sooner or later it'll happen. Don't worry too much about it.
Also, way to uber-necro in your own thread. How'd you even find it again to post in it?