Laura Komorowska (Tragedies and Triumphs)

Laura Marie Komorowska (born 12 December 1978) is an American student at Boston University and one-time love interest of Billy Cranston.

Biography
Laura was born in Hamtramck, Michigan, to working-class parents of Polish descent, the second of four children. When she was 3, her father found a good railroad job in Angel Grove, California and decided to move his family out west, delighting in living such a parallel with the Old Frontier mythos. Indeed, in the Sun Belt her parents made out reasonably well considering their lack of secondary education.

Laura and her siblings attended St. Frances Xavier Catholic School for elementary and junior high school and she and her younger sister Anna were active in the Catholic Angelette Scouts, where they knew Kimberly Hart. Laura's older brother Peter would actually date Kimberly briefly. Laura enjoyed hiking and canoing; she wasn't particularly tomboyish by nature but until junior high school she was always trying to "fit in" with her older brother's friends and afraid they would make fun of her stash of Barbie dolls and the white First Communion dress she secretly loved so much. Laura was an excellent student and loved school; she was especially fond of chemistry and physics.

Laura spent her freshman year at Holy Cross Catholic Academy but the nationwide decline in industry and rail finally hit home in mid-1994 and her father lost the job he had worked at to provide everything for his family. Despite help from their parish community, the Komorowskas could no longer afford to send all of their three remaining children to Catholic schools, and it was decided that Laura, the oldest, would "resist" the best. She took the news very hard as it meant her separation from a number of lifelong friends and fellow Angelettes, but she quickly grew close with Kimberly, who introduced Laura to her own friends and helped show her around.

Laura quickly found herself attracted to Billy, and he noticed her as well, but a few dates including the Sadie Hawkins dance never really went anywhere and the relationship slid.

Overall, Laura adapted well to her new high school and found that change and separation weren't so unbearable after all, and so upon graduation in 1997, she decided to study on the opposite coast at Boston University.