Who is Lara from Looking for Alaska and what is their importance?

Lara is a Rumanian student at the school. Pretty and speaking with a slight accent, she too is something of an outsider in the school, and becomes involved with Chip and Alaska for similar reasons to Miles and Takumi. She also becomes emotionally involved with Miles, with the narrative suggesting that it's not as much because they're attracted to each other as it is the simple fact that they're there and they're lonely. In the face of Miles' grief and his confession of attraction to and desire for Alaska, Lara is forgiving and compassionate, an important trigger for Miles' eventual self-forgiveness.