Character descriptions

There are two main characters: the teacher and the student  

Teacher: Because of her mild Down's syndrome, she has drooping eyes and is under five feet tall. She has always been very self-conscious but has learned through books how to get what she wants which works on everything except men who aren't attracted to her because of her little girl's body. She is married to a man who has a long-standing mistress and molests her daughters; she knows and doesn't care because she is all about image. She has always shaved her eyebrows off, dyed her hair blonde and worn contacts to look young. Also, she has more clothes than her children. Though men regularly rejected her before she got married, no one has ever challenged her, and she needs to be in control at all times. She works as a language and phonetics instructor at an elite international school. Her attempts to break the student who is the antithesis to all she is sets her off on the wrong course.  

Student: Because of a recent bout with cancer, she had to shave her hair which has barely started to grow back when the semester starts. She is also fat from a lack of physical exercise in recent months, so she wears baggy clothes. Despite that hardship, she is not lacking in self-confidence, is not afraid to assert herself and has a habit of correcting others or asking questions. An orphan, she has a small trust fund that makes work optional for her, but also she has developed a resiliency being on her own. When she becomes the teacher's object of contempt, she resorts to desperate measures to put an end to it.