Hi, Michel.
Thank you for sharing the .story file!
1. When I go into preview mode, and I drag the items to their respective places they drop far above that. I can't get them to drop on the target.
If you look at your drag and drop options (Question Tools > Design), you'll see it's set to snap to the center of the target, which is why the objects appear higher than where the hotspot is located. If you change it to "Free", it might work better for your scenario.
2. My one picture does change states as I have triggered, the black clip picture. However, the red clip picture does not and I have them set up the same way.
The Normal and Selected states for the red clip look the same, while the black clip has a blue border around the selected state. The trigger is working, but for the red clip, it's hard to tell the difference between those states.
I hope this helps!