Alice doesn't want to go to this Christmas party. Pretending to be straight around all her family and the Fowler family for an entire month to prepare for a ball, for her to dance with the man they want her to marry is not in the top 100 ways to spend December. But since her family is paying her tuition, she can't risk saying no. Besides, it's only once every ten years. She just has to survive. She thinks she can handle it, until she finds out her rehearsal partner she'll be spending the month with is the same one from ten years before—and the first girl Alice ever liked. And unfortunately for her, her feelings haven't changed. The Christmas Ball is a 50k-word f/f romance with family drama, a secret romance, a childhood crush, plenty of mutual pining, and of course, they only have one bed. Content warning for open-door sex scenes, queerphobia, and a really sleazy man.