Get Off to a Good Start

We can get someone into trouble by not doing something that we promised. So you got Johnny into trouble with the teacher because he kicked the ball. But really, as a friend, he shouldn't have been telling or he shouldn’t have been ratting on his friend. Perhaps you forgot to send the money to your daughter and she needs to pay her rent. Or you forgot to stop at the supermarket and buy some flowers that your wife wanted you to buy so that she could present them to her mother. So you have to make amends. We can also get our friend off the duty in the hospital if they are both working together - such as swapping shifts for football match dates.